Ideas for "cheffy" pork dishes

[sheepish]

I'm after something smart to do with pork. I have a lot of boned loins, spare rib joints (I think they might be called Boston Butts in the US), hocks, trotters cut long and short, and a few tenderloins. Also a couple of split heads minus brains (they were delicious butchers perks )

Nearly all the belly I've cured for bacon - which I've now read is beyond passé.

My swanky pork dish repertoire is based solely on Gordon Ramsays 3* Chef book - slow cooked belly with madeira sauce. And confit cheeks and tenderloin. With madeira sauce.

Any ideas for other posh plates of food? Ideally not eating into my meagre cheek and belly collection. Even if I'd give up cheeks I think I've blown the head dish from TFL by cutting the heads in half to scoff the brains.

TIA.

[vice]

Keller has a couple trotter recipes in TFL. I recall one where they're poached, then breaded and fried, served with sauce gribiche I think?

[Prawncrackers]

You can still make some brawn with your heads mate

[sheepish]

You can still make some brawn with your heads mate

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Yep. One head has already gone for brawn. I'm just not sure I could convince my friends and family that brawn is a swanky dinner party dish. An interesting starter with some home made pickles. But to be honest the missus isn't keen on jellied head meat and fat, so it tends to be a solo indulgence.

[Alcuin]

Keller has a couple trotter recipes in TFL. I recall one where they're poached, then breaded and fried, served with sauce gribiche I think?

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I've made this dish from the Bouchon book. It's delicious, unique (headcheese meets crab cakes?), and extremely rich.

[Doodad]

The Les Halles cookbook has a killer recipe for pork shoulder with a beer sauce.

[MattJohnson]

porchetta di testa?

http://www.gourmet.com/food/video/2008/09/cosentino_pigshead

Anyone who wants to stop eating pork belly because its passe can hand their plate over and fall in a well.

Edited September 2, 2009 by MattJohnson (log)

[vice]

Anyone who wants to stop eating pork belly because its passe can hand their plate over and fall in a well.

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My thoughts, precisely. Any unwanted slabs of bacon or gold ingots can be sent my way. PM for address.

[Blether]

I believe Boston Butt is pork shoulder, and you don't mention having any.

Loin makes an elegant pot roast / braise with milk, Bolognese style - see Marcella Hazan, for example, for a recipe - and that's at least bistro level, if not quite swanky. Marcella has good recipes for chops, too, braised (with tomatoes, cream & porcini ? with two wines ?), which still let you escape last-minute cooking for a large number of diners.

Otherwise loin always works sliced and quickly pan-fried, doesn't it, with any number of pan sauces ? It's lean enough to carry cream, and you've lots of bones to make reductions and really build up flavour.

Yes, I think Italian cooking is good at swanky with pork. I'd be delighted with oven-roasted ribs, too.

[Peter the eater]

Pork tartar?

Edited September 3, 2009 by Peter the eater (log)

[sheepish]

I believe Boston Butt is pork shoulder, and you don't mention having any.

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I think Boston Butt is what I would call a spare-rib joint, or what a proper UK butcher would call blade. The shoulder as I see it when I'm sawing up a carcass is a huge joint which you split in two along the line you cut the loin from the belly. The bit then attached to the loin is the blade/butt. The bit attached to the belly is the hand - which I mince for sausages.

So this is a very convoluted way of saying I do have Boston Butt. And lots of it.

[Prawncrackers]

I think Boston Butt is what I would call a spare-rib joint, or what a proper UK butcher would call blade. The shoulder as I see it when I'm sawing up a carcass is a huge joint which you split in two along the line you cut the loin from the belly. The bit then attached to the loin is the blade/butt. The bit attached to the belly is the hand - which I mince for sausages.

That's the way i see it too. When i get to the forequarter stage i split it into two, parallel to the spine along the line where i take the chops out of the middle. The top half is the "butt" which I've found this summer is the best thing to smoke on a bbq for some pulled pork.

If you're looking for the swank (as Mr Blether has put it) then are some Chinese pork dishes that are pretty impressive like Dong Po pork.

[Blether]

...I do have Boston Butt. And lots of it.

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Right. You threw me with 'spare rib joint". How about some vindaloo, which can be cheffy if you make a varied menu around it, and has great flavour when built up carefully from the basic ingredients ?

Out of interest I had a look in Good Things, too... I did make pork with prunes and Vouvray a couple of years back, and that was certainly on the sophisticated side.

swank (as Mr Blether has put it)

Hey, PC, I'm only quotin'...

I have a (not cheffy) pork pie write-up to do. So far I've only uploaded pictures. Here is a preview:

[sheepish]

Right. You threw me with 'spare rib joint". How about some vindaloo, which can be cheffy if you make a varied menu around it, and has great flavour when built up carefully from the basic ingredients ?

Made a vindaloo last night actually. Hot but not silly UK restaurant hot. Toasted spices ground with vinegar, onion, garlic, ginger. Was pretty good. Not too sure what to "put round it". We just had it on a bowl of rice.

Interested in the prunes and vouvray. Especially if it doesn't use a whole bottle and I can use the remnants to ward of cramp in the kitchen :-) Are we talking a stock and wine reduction with prunes in it? Something sticky?

Pork Pie looks good. I made a raised game pie to clear a bit of freezer last week. My first go with a hot water crust. I don't think I got the pastry thick or well enough sealed because the stock for jelly ran out of the bottom. By the look of it your pastry isn't too thick though. That looks ideal. I saved some fatty sausage meat and lean chunks to do just that.

Edited September 8, 2009 by heidih
Fixed quote tags (log)

[sheepish]

If you're looking for the swank (as Mr Blether has put it) then are some Chinese pork dishes that are pretty impressive

Nah, swanky is definitely my expression :-) Thanks for those, although it's belly again. Belly melts into alsorts of wonderful things. It's the rest of the pig that I'd like to do something clever with. I mean, loin is lovely roast, but I can't help think I should be able to come up with something a bit more la-di-da.

Have found an interesting idea in Alinea, but all of that stuff seems made for tiny plates, and I like to serve meat as my main dish, and probably not more meat as starters, pre starters, amuse yer gob, etc.

[Blether]

... Interested in the prunes and vouvray. Especially if it doesn't use a whole bottle and I can use the remnants to ward of cramp in the kitchen :-) Are we talking a stock and wine reduction with prunes in it? Something sticky?

Pork Pie looks good. I made a raised game pie to clear a bit of freezer last week. My first go with a hot water crust. I don't think I got the pastry thick or well enough sealed because the stock for jelly ran out of the bottom. By the look of it your pastry isn't too thick though. That looks ideal. I saved some fatty sausage meat and lean chunks to do just that.

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Thanks. The pies were good - more when I have the confidence to type a long post without thinking eG is about to go down for several days, and I might lose a work in progress. My forcemeat was very successful - 50/50 shoulder and belly for mincing, and in that picture you can see one of the pieces of loin I left as cubes. I'm not sure I'd do that again. Pastry maybe just a bit on the thick side, but yes, I was pleased with it, overall.

Noisettes de porc aux pruneaux de tours - I meant Jane Grigson's Good Things, but it's also an Elizabeth David recipe - I dunno about reproducing published recipes, here, but as it turns out I can be lazy and just link to another site where ED is quoted word-for-word

Vindaloo's Goan, isn't it ? Some mango chutney, and seafoody-coconutty, tropical things ? Or take a bunch of drugs and eat on the beach, maybe.

I have an economical pork (shoulder) / white wine / cabbage pot roast that I posted about before, again more Bistro than cheffy -

I think the recipe is in the dinner thread, *somewhere* - or I can re-post it.

Edited September 3, 2009 by Blether (log)

[Doodad]

Other than smoked shoulder BBQ (which is the best BTW) here it the recipe I mentioned above. It is delicious! My second favorite use of shoulder.

Palette de Porc a la biere

Ingredients

4 to 6 lb pork shoulder, bone in

salt and pepper

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp butter

2 small onions

2 carrots

4 garlic cloves

2 tbsp flour

1/4 cup cider vinegar

12 oz beer

1 cup chicken stock

4 tbsp dijon

2 tbsp breadcrumbs

Season the pork and sear in 2 tbsp of oil and 2 tbsp butter. Discard the fat and add the remaining oil. Saute the vegetables until soft and slightly caramelised. Add flour, cook 2 minutes. Stir in Vinegar and beer and reduce by half, then add teh chicken stock and bring to a boil. Return pork to the pot and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for two hours or so.

Preheat the oven to 450F. Remove the pork from the pot and place on baking sheet. Brush with half the mustard, then press the breadcrumbs on. Brown for 15 minutes, then allow to rest for 5

Strain the cooking liquid into a sauce pan. Simmer about 15 minutes, check seaoning. Remove from heat, whisk in mustard and serve with the sliced pork.

[sheepish]

Noisettes de porc aux pruneaux de tours - I meant Jane Grigson's Good Things

Thanks. When you mentioned Jane Grigson I checked my copy of "Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery", which I usually refer to for salamis and terrines. I'd never really noticed the fresh pork section, and that exact recipe is in there too. Shelves full of books are only any good if you can remember what's in them :-)

Like the Goan ideas. If the rain stopped blowing in sideways we could pretend the front garden was a beach.

You haven't stumbled across anything clever with pork in Japan then? I ordered "pork cartlidge" in one of those little snack/noodle places attached to the station in Beppu, it was a lovely slow cooked knuckle. One of those occasions where the translation went the wrong way for the squeamish.

[nickrey]

Just tonight I had a wonderful dish of "pig bits" at the Burlington in Sydney.

Pigs trotters that had been slow cooked down into a little jelly bundle were served with a "quenelle" of horseradish cream.

A smoked pork brawn was served in a shot glass.

Finally, slow cooked pigs ears were cut into strips, crumbed, and deep fried and then served on a small salad of mayonnaise and fennel.

Delicious, "cheffy" and a wow to offal lovers (or, to be specific, me ).

[Blether]

You haven't stumbled across anything clever with pork in Japan then? I ordered "pork cartlidge" in one of those little snack/noodle places attached to the station in Beppu, it was a lovely slow cooked knuckle. One of those occasions where the translation went the wrong way for the squeamish.

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There are a lot of those dictionary-translations to scare the unwary

I really love some of the little tonkatsu places you come across, where it's mom-and-pop and they've obviously been making pork cutlets and nothing else for 30 or 40 years, and the quality is just so honed. But I figure prawncrackers should make those suggestions after his (?) recent post in 'Dinner', with a tonkatsu that looked superb. To my shame, in my own kitchen I tend to concentrate on the things I can't go out and buy - after all this time, actual engagement with Japanese cooking continues to pass me by. The odd shioyaki fish or miso soup (is that cooking ?!) is the exception.

I've had pig ears Chinese style (and other strange pig snacks) at Yotsuya's well-known Kouya, just down the road; I've also had motsu-ni (a stew of the lower parts of pig guts) elsewhere, that I could barely eat. Gyoza and shumai are of course great Japanese pork-based foods; along with char siu (chaashuu) they've been here long enough to be near native. But Japanese char siu uses belly, again - I think the Chinese version is more normally shoulder ?

'Shouga-yaki' is another Japanese standard - thin slices of loin cooked with ginger and soy, and a nicely-flavoured dish when done well; sometimes the meat's cooked till it's too dry. Shabu-shabu's a possibility for pork, and there's yakiniku, too. Are these things cheffy ? The diner does the cooking

[razzar]

Other than smoked shoulder BBQ (which is the best BTW) here it the recipe I mentioned above. It is delicious! My second favorite use of shoulder.

Palette de Porc a la biere

Thank you for this recipe. I blatantly ripped it off for dinner yesterday and it was delicious. I'm looking forward to the leftovers too.

[djyee100]

I learned how to make this stuffed pork loin from chef Kathie Alex some years ago.

Roast Pork Loin with Apricot, Pistachio and Smoked Turkey Stuffing

(Roti du porc, farci avec abricots, pistaches et dinde fumee)

--Soak 3 oz dried apricots in 1/4 cup brandy until softened. Drain the apricots and reserve the brandy.

--Butterfly a 4-lb boneless pork loin, i.e, cut it in the middle without slicing through completely, so that it opens up flat like a book. Season with S&P and 1 TB freshly chopped thyme. Lay on 4 oz thinly sliced smoked turkey, followed by the apricots. Scatter on 1/4 cup of coarsely chopped pistachios. Close the "book," roll it up, and tie it. Heat oil in a large casserole or Dutch oven and brown the loin on all sides. Add in 1/2 cup dry white wine and the reserved brandy. Boil and reduce the liquid by half. Add 1 1/2 cups unsalted chicken stock and a bouquet garni of thyme, bay leaf and parsley. Cover the loin with a circle of parchment paper and the casserole lid. Bring to a simmer, and lower heat. Cook approx 1 1/2 hrs or until cooked through and tender. Remove the loin, keep it warm, and if you like, make a sauce from the cooking liquid.

Definitely a company meal, delicious and spectacular to present. The first time I made this dish, it was very salty--from the smoked turkey, which I guess was not of particularly good quality. The second time I made the recipe, I omitted the turkey, and stuffed the loin only with apricots and pistachios. It still tasted good. But I suggest that you put in some smoked turkey, it really would taste better, just make sure you have the real thing. It shouldn't be salty like that.

Kathie Alex served this pork loin with roasted butternut squash and a gratin of celery root and potatoes. The next course was a salad of various lettuces, including endives, roasted pear slices, blue cheese, dried cranberries (cooked and softened) and a shallot vinaigrette. The dessert was a knock-out of banana souffle with caramel walnut sauce. I'm salivating as I write this.

[meicjos41]

For the shoulder: brine for 12-24 hours, confit in a 200 F degree oven for however long it takes to get meltingly tender, then cool, slice, and sear to develop an amazing crust. Serve it with a salad/slaw with a very acidic dressing to cut through all the fat.

[Doodad]

No one has mentioned carnitas yet? Shame. That is my favorite Mexican dish and so simple.

[Ross Boyce]

Can I throw in Korean BBQ Pork? It might not be too haute (in fact, as I'm sitting in Edinburgh, my recipe probably isn't even too authentic) but marinading a boned shoulder for a day or so in a combination of grated ginger, spring onion, garlic, some mirin, soy and chilli garlic paste and then cooking it over coals before carving it table side in front of hungry friends is pretty good.

I serve it with a cold noodle salad laced with coriander and cold beers to take the edge off.