For many years I have extolled the virtues of Scottish pork. Only last year, writing about ham, I listed a couple of pig farmers who produce delectable sausages, bacon, and ham. Now it seems I have been joined in my campaign to buy Scottish or British pork and pork products by such luminaries as Rick Stein and Gordon Ramsay.
Jamie Oliver (one of my heroes) has long publicly recognised the superiority of British pork, but this latest publicity campaign is, sadly, born out of necessity – to keep our pig farms going. For years, pig meat has been imported from countries to t
he east of the EU, where there are no restrictions on pig feed and no humanity in pig farming. Feedstuffs that are banned in this country (and rightly so) are deemed perfectly all right when we're importing the resulting meat. It all seems crazy to me – the quality of meat depends on how the animal is raised and what it is fed on.
Pork is a superb meat, from the cheapest cuts to the most expensive. I shall be demonstrating several dishes at the Quality Meat Scotland stand at the Highland Show in June. Meanwhile, here are three recipes, illustrating its great versatility.
PORK BRAISED WITH APPLES, LEEKS AND CIDERSERVES 6
2lb/900g pork shoulder, weighed when trimmed, cut into even-sized chunks about 1in/2cm
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
about 20 grinds of the peppermill
5 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium-sized red onions, skinned and thinly sliced
3 leeks, trimmed of outer leaves, topped and tailed, then sliced thinly
1-2 fat cloves of garlic, skinned and diced
1/2 pint/285ml cider – or unsweetened apple juice, if you prefer
1 pint good stock, or stock substitute (Marigold powder is my preference)
4 good eating apples (not Golden Delicious), peeled, cored, quartered and sliced
extra salt and pepper, to taste
a good grating of nutmeg
Put the flour, salt and pepper in a large polythene bag. Shake it, to mix, then add the pork chunks. Hold the bag tight and shake vigorously, to coat each chunk with seasoned flour.
In a large casserole, heat three of the tablespoons of olive oil and brown the pork meat on all sides – a small batch at a time, so as not to lower the heat in the pan. Scoop the browned meat into a warmed bowl.
When all the meat is browned, add the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil, reduce the heat under the pan and add the sliced onions and leeks. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about five to seven minutes, until the onions are completely soft. Then, add any excess flour from the polythene bag, stir it in well, adding the cider (or apple juice) and stock. Scrape any sticky bits from the bottom of the pan and stir until the liquid boils.
Add the sliced apples and return the browned pork to the pan. Bring the liquid back to a gentle simmer, cover the pan with its lid and cook in a moderate oven, 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4, for 1 hour.
As with all stews and casseroles, this tastes much better cooked, cooled, stored in the fridge for up to two days, then cooked again – but from room temperature, never straight from fridge to oven. Before reheating, taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary, and the nutmeg. To reheat, return the casserole to the oven and cook at the same temperature as before, for a further hour.
I like to serve well-beaten mashed potatoes containing a couple of teaspoons of horseradish with this, and a green vegetable, such as purple sprouting broccoli or spinach.
PORK CHOPS IN ROASTED TOMATO, CHILLI AND CELERY SAUCESERVES 6
6 loin chops
5 tablespoons olive oil
3 onions, skinned and halved and neatly diced
11/2 lb/675g cherry tomatoes
1 head of celery, root end and leaves cut off and the stringy bits removed (use a potato peeler for this), the sticks cut on the diagonal into 2cm lengths
6 fat cloves of garlic, in their skins
1 teaspoon salt
about 15 grinds of the pepper mill
1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes or 4-5 grinds of the chilli mill (those of us who like a hotter chilli taste can always add more!)
1 tablespoon plain flour
Start by cooking the tomato mixture: in a flameproof casserole dish – or, if you have one, a non-stick Berndes sauté pan with a lid – heat four tablespoons of olive oil and fry the diced onions over a moderate heat until they are completely soft – about five minutes. Take the pan off the heat, remove the handle (if you use a Berndes pan) and add the tomatoes and celery and cloves of garlic to the onions. Season with the salt and pepper, and add the dried chilli. Mix all very thoroughly, so as to distribute the salt and pepper and coat all the celery and cherry tomatoes with olive oil. Roast in a hot oven, 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6, for 30 minutes. Take the pan from the oven, stir the contents, then return to the oven and continue to roast for a further 15 to 20 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven. When cool enough to handle, squeeze each garlic clove so that the soft, roasted interior pops out. Mix into the tomatoes and celery.
Meanwhile, trim any excess fat from each pork chop. Cut inwards, towards the lean meat, through any fat you leave behind – this helps prevent the chops from curling up as they brown.
In a non-stick frying pan, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil over a moderately high heat. Sprinkle each chop with sieved flour, on both sides, then brown each side. When they are browned, add them to the pan or casserole containing the tomatoes and celery, spooning the vegetables over each chop. Cover the pan with its lid and cook in a moderate oven, 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4, for 30-45 minutes, depending on how hot the vegetable mixture is when you spoon it over. You can prepare this dish a day in advance and store it, lid on, in the fridge – just bring it to room temperature for half an hour and allow 45 minutes' cooking time.
This is also very good with horseradish mashed potatoes and a green vegetable, such as spring greens, or kale.
PORK FILLET WITH PRUNES, SHALLOTS AND RED WINEThis rich and satisfying recipe is for a special occasion. I like to serve crispy roast potatoes as an accompaniment – roast them in goose fat – and a smooth purée of parsnips and celeriac, containing chopped parsley and snipped chives, for colour.
SERVES 6
3 pork fillets, any thin membranes trimmed off
5 tablespoons olive oil
18 banana, or large, shallots, each skinned
12 Agen prunes, stoned and halved
1 pint/600ml red wine
1 teaspoon salt
about 15 grinds of black pepper
1/2 pint/300ml double cream (or a low fat substitute such as Elmlea, which like cream thickens as it bubbles)
Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick sauté pan and, over a moderately high heat, brown the pork fillets all over. As they brown, remove them to a large, warmed plate.
Lower the heat a little under the pan and add the skinned shallots. Fry them gently for about ten minutes, so that they start to caramelise. Then return the browned pork fillets to the pan with the shallots, add the halved prunes and the red wine (I use Merlot for this recipe), salt and pepper.
Cover the pan with its lid and cook, the wine bubbling very gently, for 20 minutes. Lift out the pork fillets and put them onto a warmed serving dish. Cover them loosely with foil and keep the dish warm.
Bubble up the red wine and pork juices around the shallots and prunes in the sauté pan until the liquid has reduced by around half. Add the double cream or cream substitute, and stir until the contents of the pan reach simmering point. Simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste, and add more salt and pepper if needed.
Meanwhile, slice each pork fillet diagonally into six pieces. Return them to the warmed serving dish, then spoon the contents of the sauté pan over and around the slices.
There is one slight drawback to this dish – it doesn't freeze satisfactorily.
The full article contains 1417 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
