Category: pork

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Crispy Crackling

So how do I ensure that my pork crackling is crispy?

The key for me is two factors, dryness and hotness.

The pork skin needs to be really really dry. I use kitchen towel to ensure that the pork is as dry as possible. I know some people will rub salt in, but that is basically the same thing, the salt will asorb any moisture on the skin. Personally I find that just using kitchen towel is just as effective.

The next stage is place the pork into a really really hot oven. I have my oven on full and when it has pre-heated, I place the pork in the middle and cook for 15 minutes before turing down the heat to 160℃ or 180℃ depending on the cut of the pork.

As a result, nearly everytime I get a wonderfully crispy crackling.

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Pork Belly

You don’t always have to use expensive cuts of meat to make a wonderful meal, sometimes the cheapest cuts cooked really slowly can have fantastic flavour and texture.

Turn on your oven to its highest temperature.

Place the pork belly in a roasting oven, season, and roast on the high temperature for about ten minutes, then turn the oven down to about 160℃ and cook for at least another hour depending on size and thickness. Cooking for longer results in a more tender piece of pork. However what I have been doing recently is cutting the belly into squares and coating in a spicy marinade before finshing off in the oven for another 15-20 minutes.

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Cooking Apples

Whenever I cook pork (and if I have time) I like to cook some apple to serve alongside. This is not apple sauce, this is cooking apples.

Cooking Apples

If I have more time I do peel the apples, but this isn’t strictly necessary.

In a large frying pan, like the one you cooked the pork in, add some butter and place the apples in the pan. I then sprinkle a teaspoon of icing sugar. This helps to caramelise the apple and add a little sweetness. It is best to serve straight away once they have finished cooked and are browned.

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Spiced Pork Belly

Usually I like to cook pork belly for a long slow time in the oven.

I also use a faster technique with squares or cubes of pork belly. It was a variation of this technique that I used to cook a oriential inspired spiced pork belly.

The key factor for me was time, I would like have marinated the pork, but didn’t have the time. So I took the slab of pork belly and cut it into squares about two inches.

These I then placed in a hot oven and roasted for about twenty minutes.

Meanwhile I created a sauce for the pork, mine consisted of a splash of sunflower oil, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup (though you could use honey) black pepper, spices and I also added a Knorr stock pot.

I took the pork out of the oven and tossed it in the sauce before spooning the reminder over the pork.

The pork was then placed back in the oven for another 15-20 minutes.

Removing the pork from the oven, I cut each “square” into three slices and served with stir fried vegetables and noodles.

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Pork Chop

I do quite like a pork chop now and again, though loin steaks appear to be more popular with people these days, the bone in the pork chop helps to stop the meat from drying out. Where possible I try and buy outdoor reared pork, as I have found that it has a lot more flavour than the pork you usually buy.

I cooked this pork chop by roasting in the oven, after adding some seasoning.

It was lovely and tender, delicious.

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Roast Pork

I cooked a very nice loin of pork at the weekend.

Like most times I roast a joint, for the final hour I added chopped vegetable, though this time I also added apple, well it was pork.

Those may look sausages under the joint, but they are in fact carrots. By placing carrots under the pork, it adds flavour and stops the joint “steaming” in its juices and roast more evenly. Just in case you were wondering you can eat the carrots, but I add them to the gravy.

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Pork leg steaks with a spiced apple stuffing

Most of the supermarkets now have a “cook at home” food, Waitrose is no exception and they have their “Easy to Cook” range.

We recently tried the pork leg steaks with a spiced apple stuffing.

Described as “succulent English pork leg steaks with a spiced apple stuffing, topped with apple butter and wrapped in English bacon” they looked really nice and sounded delicious.

It did sound tempting.

After cooking the pork according to the instructions, I sliced the steaks and they appeared to be quite tender.

The problem was the flavour or to be more specific the lack of flavour. Now most pork you buy doesn’t have much flavour, outdoor reared or free range generally does. These steaks lacked any depth of flavour. Not a problem, the spiced apple should enhance the pork as should the apple butter. Hmmm, well they didn’t the apple flavour was also missing and the spice though there, was so subtle you quite easily missed it.

It was a pity as this did some a really nice dish, but the lack of flavour and general blandness of the finished dish was very disappointing. Next time I think I will make it myself.

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Roast Pork Belly

I really do like a nice piece of pork belly, especially when roasted in the oven.

I use to be only be able to buy pork belly in slices, but more recently it has become much easier to buy pork belly in one piece. This makes it much easier to roast whole in the oven, not that it isn’t nice to roast small cubes of pork belly.

I use kitchen towel to dry the pork belly before cooking. Then when cooking, to start in a very hot oven (to ensure you get nice crispy crackling) before turning down to a much lower temperature , say 160℃ for a couple of hours. This way you get a wonderfully crisp crackling, tender moist meat and great flavour.

Now in terms of flavour, I do much prefer using “proper” pork as opposed to the mass produced stuff you can buy.  The pork pictured was “outdoor reared” and tasted really good.

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Griddled Pork Medallions

The griddle is a nice way of cooking medallions of pork.

It chargrills the surface, adding flavour, whilst keeping the meat moist and tender.

Very nice.

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Pork with Borlotti Beans

This pork dish was a throw together type of dish and alas the pork was not as tender as I hoped. Though I think that was more down to the pork I used. I had some diced pork and I think it would have been better with medallions of pork fillet, or possibly cooked for a lot longer.

In a large frying pan I browned off some diced pork. Once this was browned it was removed from the pan and I cooked off some diced onions and mixed peppers.

To this I added Sainsbury’s Boeuf Bourguignonne paste from their new Ingredients for Cooks range. I then added some water, on the assumption that the concentrated paste would have sufficient flavour and salt already added.

This I then let simmer for about thirty minutes, before adding a small tin of cooked borlotti beans.

I served this with some plain boiled rice.