Pork – Page 7 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Pork Chops with Apples and Potatoes

Twenty-four hours before, we were in Philadelphia, the so-called sixth borough of New York City. It was like summer and everyone was out walking and enjoying the weather. From the Reading Terminal Market, we picked up some purple potatoes and apples, a bunch of arugula and escarole. We planned to cook a nice fish dinner back in New York City with the fresh produce we stuffed in my canvas bag. Alas, there were no more whole fish at Eli’s grocery store when we stopped by in the upper east side so we moved to Plan B. We bought two pork chops from the back and I thought of baking them with the Fujis. The Dr. was exhausted and just wanted to leave the cooking to me. I’ve done a similar dish before using red and white wines, but we were starving and this had to be fairly easy and quick. We snacked on the beef jerky we bought from Philly and drank the Hungarian red brought by co-workers from Budapest while we caught up with New York City news.

Ingredients:
2 pork chops
1 Fuji apple, peeled, sliced
1 onion, finely chopped
5 small purple potatoes, halved
1 cup veal stock
2 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 cloves
salt, pepper, oil

1. Preheat oven to 375º. Sprinkle pork chops with salt and pepper.
2. In a large skillet, heat some oil and brown the pork chops on both sides. Remove to a plate. Using the same skillet, sauté onions while scraping the bottom of the pan to include the pork bits. Remove to another plate.
3. In a small bowl, combine stock with mustard, sugar and cloves. Whisk and season with some salt and pepper.
4. Transfer pork chops to a baking dish. Add potatoes around them. Top with caramelized onions and pour in flavored stock. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, turning chops over during the last 15 minutes of cooking. Remove the chops to a chopping board and let rest while the potatoes roast for another 15 minutes.

Curry With Fruits

I love the flavor of curry. If I can roll over curry powder, I would. I love putting together different spices and making a definition of an entire cuisine with them. This recipe is from StÃ©phane Reynaud’s Pork & Sons, the same book that brought pig’s ears and trotters in my kitchen. I’m actually quite surprised that my infatuation with this book has lasted this long. This recipe intrigued me because of its use of fruits.

Ingredients:
1 pound Boston butt, cut into cubes
2 bananas, cut into chunks before adding to the dish
1 tart apple, peeled and sliced before adding to the dish
1 cup of preserved pineapple chunks, drained
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup white wine
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup almonds, shelled
1 onion, sliced
2 tbsps curry powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1 bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
oil

1. Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven. Add the pork and onions and cook in medium heat, stirring frequently until the pork is evenly browned, about 10 minutes. Add the curry powder and coriander and continue to stir for 2 more minutes.
2. Stir in the white wine, scraping up the sediments from the bottom of the pot. Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat and simmer for 45 minutes.
3. Stir in the cream and cook for 15 minutes until reduced. Add half of the coconut milk and simmer for another 15. Add the fruits and the almonds and simmer for 5 more. Swirl in the remaining coconut milk and sprinkle with cilantro before serving.

Quail Egg Tapas

I was watching a rerun of an Andrew Zimmern episode shot in Barcelona where he came across some quail eggs, pointed at them and said, Quail eggs; we don’t really see that back at home. I found the comment odd because I see them every time I go to Chinatown. And as far as I can remember, we often had them stocked. In fact, I had a dozen in the fridge!

I usually like to boil them, peel off the shell and throw them in a wok of stir-fried vegetables, but over the weekend, I was inspired to fry them for breakfast and eat them with chistorra, a semi-cured sausage from Spain I picked up from DespaÃ±a. You probably make your own breakfast already, so why not use different ingredients the next time? This is very lazy, but the presentation looks like you made an effort.

Ingredients:
quail eggs
chistorra sausages, halved lengthwise
oil

Optional:
mozzarella cheese
basil leaves
tomato
baguette, toasted

1. Using a small skillet, heat some oil. Fry sausages until light brown. If you have a grill press, use it to press the sausages down.
2. In the same skillet with the rendered sausage fat, fry the quail egg like you would a regular egg, but keep watch: it’s smaller and will obviously cook faster.
3. Assemble on serving plates any way you like. Feel free to add mozzarella cheese, basil, tomato or toasted crusty bread.

Pig’s Feet With Caramelized Onions

With all the fish I’ve been eating the past week, it was time to go back to pork. What better way to celebrate my return than to, ahem, trot back to the kitchen with pig’s feet. This is another recipe from StÃ©phane Reynaud’s Pork & Sons. If you can get a glimpse of the book, turn to page 190–you’ll want to make the recipe at home, too.

In Chinatown’s Deluxe Food Market, pig’s trotters are less than $3 for a pair. If you can’t find them in the frozen section, get one of the Chinese men’s attention and say “feet” while pointing at your shoes; one of them will surely direct you to the right shelf. The original recipe uses walnut oil to bring out the richness of the feet. I didn’t want to spend $12 on a bottle from Dean & Deluca, so I stuck with my good olive oil at home. I think I achieved what the author was thinking of here.

The funny thing about pig’s feet is that people forget that it’s not offal. Sure, a foot is an odd part of the pig to be eating, but you don’t eat it like you do chicken’s feet at dimsum. (I’ve never heard of pig’s foot in a stick either.) It takes a couple of hours to make the feet soft and when you take them out of the boiling water, the meat and skin fall off the bones easily. They are rich in fat content and very gelatinous, so you get the same fatty meat that you do from a very Filipino pork adobo. It’s all that fat you can be squeamish about, not which part it came from.

Ingredients:
2 pig’s feet, thoroughly rinsed
4 strips bacon, chopped
2 carrots, peeled, chopped
1 white onion, halved
2 red onions, thinly sliced
1 bunch scallion, chopped
half a bunch of parsley
2 bay leaves
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
chives, chopped
salt, pepper, oil

1. In a large Dutch oven, put the feet, bacon, white onion, carrots, scallions, parsley and bay leaves with enough water to cover. Cover and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 2 hours.
2. While waiting for the feet to soften, heat some oil in a skillet and sautÃ© 1 red onion and cook until soft. Set aside.
3. After 2 hours, remove the feet and bacon from the pot using a slotted spoon. Using a fork and a knife, separate the meat and the skin from the bones. This should be fairly easy. Discard the bones.
4. Chop the bacon. Combine the sautÃ©d onion with the feet meat and skin plus the bacon. Season with some salt and pepper. Using a Saran wrap, spoon the mixture and arrange like a sausage. Cover and roll like a tight, big blunt. (Oh, come on. You know.) Put in the freezer for 30 minutes.
5. While waiting for the pig’s feet sausage to form, caramelize the last red onion by sautÃ©ing some hot oil in the same skillet and mixing with brown sugar. Set aside for topping.
6. Make your dressing. Whisk together some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
7. After 30 minutes, preheat your broiler. Remove the feet from the freezer, unwrap and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices and place on an ovenproof serving plate. Heat briefly in the broiler, just enough to warm the meat up, less than 5 minutes. To serve, top with caramelized onion and chives, and then drizzle with oil-balsamic dressing.

Soppressatta With Herbs

It really can’t get more decadent than this: one of my favorite sausages happily marinating in the finest olive oil and fresh herbs. Well, okay, add foie gras and you’re really set. But this is so easy; requires only a week of preserving and you have yourself about two weeks’ worth of appetizers.

Ingredients:
a chunk of good quality soppressatta, sliced thinly
2 sprigs of thyme
3 sprigs of rosemary
10 juniper berries
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 bay leaf
olive oil
baguette, to serve

1. Place and arrange the soppressatta slices in a pickling jar with herbs and spices. Pour in olive oil to cover. Seal tightly and store in the fridge for at least a week.
2. When ready to eat, scoop out a serving or two onto a plate and microwave for 15 seconds, or enough to melt the olive oil. Serve with toasted baguette and a nice glass of red wine.