Pancetta Wrapped Pork

This is another pork tenderloin recipe, it’s nice (don’t forget I hate pork) and I would cook it again but I preferred the other recipe with the apples. I suppose with everything it’s all about taste, I personally found the sage leaves somewhat bitter tasting, which wasn’t very pleasant. On the other hand I suspect if you were to caramelise really thinly sliced apples in butter and brown sugar until soft and then carefully lay the apples on the pancetta/bacon, in the same way as you would the sage, then pour the juices over the top and wrap it all up in the same way sealing in the apples and as much of the juices as possible, cooking it in the same way, I suspect that I would like it more than the sage. I normally love sage so I am not sure what it was about this that went wrong or I wasn’t keen on.

Pancetta Wrapped Pork

12 Pancetta Slices/Bacon

Salt and black pepper

12 small sage leaves

325g Pork Tenderloin

1tbsp Olive oil

1. Preheat your oven to 180˚C/350˚F. Cover your chopping board with cling film, it needs to be as flat as possible. Place each one of you pancetta slices slightly over lapping onto the cling film and then sprinkle with a generous amount of salt and pepper, laying a sage leaf evenly along the centre. Place your pork onto the edge of the pancetta and using the cling film to aid you, roll the pork tightly into the pancetta, peeling back the cling film as you go.
   
    
2. Take a piece of foil, large enough to wrap the pork, lightly oil the foil and season with a little more salt and pepper, carefully roll the pork in all the seasonings and then tightly wrap the foil around the pork, twisting the ends so it looks like a Christmas cracker.
   
    
3. Put the meat in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, then remove the foil and turn up the heat to 200˚C/400˚F and put it back in the oven until the pancetta is crisp and the meat is cooked through.
   

Pork Fillet with Caramelised Apples

Although I have a massive aversion to most types of pork, I eat bacon, sausages, ham and gammon! But I keep trying, and to date this is my favourite, pork recipe! I love the garlic and the caramelised apple. I am a huge fan, much to my dietary misfortune, of cream sauces they’re a major vice of mine. Despite my saying this is my favourite I’m yet to be converted to pork. In most cases I still find the taste repugnant, I concede that, that is for sure a very strong word to use, but then again it does described exactly how I feel about it, unless it is cured or smoked. Pork is one of those poor ingredients totally subjected to my prejudice’s, it really does have a rough time, which is why I keep trying and have pork in many forms in the freezer, they’ll probably still be in the freezer this time next year but 2 years ago I wouldn’t have even entertained the idea of buying any and I am determined to find that perfect recipe that will change my mind about pork forever. This wasn’t it, but I did like it if that makes any sense at all… I suppose the best way to explain that would be to say that although I enjoyed this pork dish, I still don’t like to eat pork and I won’t go out of my way to buy it, unless I have a pork recipe in mind to try. I end up with bits in the freezer for two reasons, first being I buy it and put it in the freezer with a misplaced intention to do something with it later and then the other reason, I am a bargain buyer, if I go into ASDA, that’s the shop I use, and they are doing a deal I am going to buy the deal to save money, so instead of having bought five pork steaks (can’t eat chops) for £3.50 I’ll buy ten for £5.00, the prices are made up, I have never been in ASDA and bought 10 steaks for £5.00, I was just showing the kind of deal I would go for.

 

Pork Fillet with Caramelised Apples

1 pork fillet

 1 tsp dried rosemary

1-2 green apples, cores removed, and cut into wedges

1 garlic clove, minced

20g butter

½ tbsp. cider vinegar

1 small onion finely diced

½ tbsp. soft brown sugar

125ml. cider

1tbsp crème fraiche

Salt and black pepper

1.       Preheat your oven to 230˚C/450˚F. Using a sharp knife cut slits into the pork, and stuff with the minced garlic, doing both sides of the pork.

2.       Melt the butter and mix it with vinegar and brush it over the pork, saving a little for later. Sprinkle half of the rosemary over the pork and season with salt and pepper.

3.       Scatter the onions on your baking tray, then add the pork. Mix the apples with the remaining butter mixture and toss to coat, add them to the baking tray with the pork. Sprinkle the sugar, and remaining rosemary over the top.

4.       Roast your pork on the highest shelf for about 25-30 minutes, it will be cooked when the juices run clear.

5.       Transfer the pork and apples to a warmed plate and cover with foil to keep warm.

6.       Pour the cider onto the tray, heat it a little to loosen any stuck onions and meat juices, transfer it all to a small saucepan, add the remaining cider and bring it to a slow boil, reduce the liquid by about a third and then whisk in the crème fraiche, season to taste with salt and ground pepper.

7.       Serve with roast potatoes and your favourite veg with the sauce over the top…..

 

Jerk Pork - My 200th post

This pork recipe is one that I got out of a J.O book, I had to change it somewhat because the original recipe said to use ginger in the salsa but I am allergic, even the smallest amount of ginger makes my breathing laboured, and gives me a really irritating cough, but a large amount of ginger and I feel my oesophagus closing and getting tight, so I didn’t add any ginger. We don’t like coriander/cilantro – so I used parsley instead, I read somewhere that it is an acceptable substitute. I also didn’t use a bone in piece of pork, I know all the facts about it adding flavour – I have been getting better, and putting my bone “phobia” aside but there are times when I just feel ill at the thought of it. This was one of times; I have to admit it was probably because bones and pork are two things that put me off before I’ve even started. The pork though was rather tasty and I will probably use the cooking method again, as for the salsa next time I’ll make it with less lime, it was a little too citric for my liking.

Jerk Pork

                                                                                                                            For Jerk Salsa 

5kg pork, skin on                                                                                                1-2 chillies (Your preferred sort)

Salt and pepper                                                                                                  2 bunches of spring onions

Pinch of rosemary and thyme                                                                             1tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp nutmeg                                                                                                        1tsp ground cloves

Olive oil                                                                                                               2tsp ground allspice

2 x 500ml cider                                                                                                    3 limes

                                                                                                                             3 bay leaves

                                                                                                                             2 cloves garlic, peeled

                                                                                                                             1-2tbsp honey

                                                                                                                              Olive oil

                                                                                                                              Large bunch parsley

1.       Preheat your oven to 240˚C/475˚F. Using a sharp knife score the skin of your pork to about a cm deep and massage the salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme and nutmeg with a little olive oil all over the meat, and into the scores. Put the pork skin side up into a roasting pan with one of the bottles of cider, bake for 30 minutes and then reduce the heat to 130˚C/250˚F.

2.       After an hour add the remaining bottle of cider and cook for about 3 hours, cover the roasting pan with tin foil and return to the oven for a further 3-4 hours.

3.       Transfer the meat to a serving platter; discard the fat, keeping the cooking juices. Place all the salsa ingredients into a liquidizer and pulse until it has a salsa looking consistency, and then mix in with the meat juices taste for seasoning and adjust if needed.

4.       Remove the crackling from the meat, discarding the fat and place on a serving platter. Using two forks shred the pork, and then toss together with the salsa, and serve on a bed of rice.

Pork In Bean Sauce

Pork is for sure my least favourite thing to eat. A rare commodity in our house but not entirely non-existant (we do eat smoked and cured porks) but all the pork recipes are carefully selected - chosen for maximum flavour. I find pork particularlly bland, boring etc...... In fact any negative word for food you can think of that is how I feel about it, but I've far from written it off - after all I'll eeat ham, bacon and sausages. The rest is a slow process of trial and error, I refuse to give up on it just because my previous experience was so negative.

Pork In Bean Sauce

1lb boneless pork (pork strips if you can buy them)

1 tbsp oyster Sauce

1/2 tsp Sugar

1 1/2 tsp cornflour/cornstarch

2 tbsp black bean sauce

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

2 tsp chinese rice wine

2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup water

1/4 tsp sesame oil

2 tbsp evoo

1/4 tsp chilli paste

A few broccoli florrets

1. If they aren't already, cut the pork into thin strips, place the pork in a bowl, add the oyster sauce, sugar and cornflour/cornstarch, mix and leave to marinate for half an hour.

2. Mix together the black bean sauce, dark soy sauce, rice wine, if rice wine is unavailable use a good quality, pale dry sherry instead, sugar, salt, water and sesame oil, then set aside.

3. Preheat your wok or skillet if you don't own a wok, then add the oil, when the oil is very hot, add the chilli paste and stir-fry for a few seconds, it should become aromatic, now add your pork stir-fry until it is almost cooked through.

4. Move the pork around the edges of the wok or skillet, and pour your sauce into the middle of the wok. Bring to a boil and then mix with the pork, then add the broccoli. Cover with a lid and then simmer until the pork is cooked through, the broccoli should be hot but crunchy.

Serve with rice or chinese noodles

Blurgh To The Pork!

I am a self professed hater of pork, unless it's smoked, I used to be able to count the amount of times we had eaten pork on one hand. Although I have to be honest I have cooked with it a little more often, that said I still don't enjoy it, but I am looking for that perfect recipe! I think I have mentioned before my reason behind not eating pork. Germans eat a lot of pork, personally I just got sick of it - chops, schnitzel, joint, whatever... Unless it was smoked or cured. I am somewhat disinterested and I am sceptical as to whether I will ever be able to truly enjoy pork ever again. However as you can see I have not entirely ruled it out, I'm trying new pork recipes. I have found quite a few in my recipe books that I want to try. I'll blog when I get round to them eventually. In the meantime, these maple BBQ ribs were really quite nice.

BBQ RIBS WITH A MAPLE GLAZE

3 lbs Pork Spare Ribs

1 Small Onion, Finely Diced

1 Tbsp White Wine Vinegar

1 Tbsp Chilli Sauce

1/2 Tsp Salt

1/4 Tsp Ground Mustard

1 Cup Maple Syrup

1 Tbsp Worcester Sauce

2 Cloves Minced Garlic

1/8 Tsp Pepper

The original recipe also said to add 1/2 tsp of ground ginger (I'm allergic so didn't add it) and a Tbsp of sesame seeds, but I couldn't find any.

1. Cut the ribs into serving sized pieces, place the ribs with the bone, side down, in a shallow roasting pan with a rack. Bake for an hour at 350F/180C and drain any excess fluid.

2. In the meantime, in a saucepan combine all the remain ingredients, continuely stir over a medium heat until the mixture begins to boil.

3. Pour the sauce over your ribs and bake uncovered for a further 30-45 minutes or until the ribs are tender, basting every now and again.