Pork Chops - sixth batch

Usually I do this with chicken thighs, but I thought I would  go crazy and try it with pork chops - and it worked!

The weasle sized chop was a shame but the chips were mega-time

Basically the chops are just patted dry, and then rubbed with salt, black pepper and a generous amount of smoked paprika on both sides. These are cooked on a rack, balanced across a roasting tin above the potatoes.

The potatoes are shaved and cut into wedges and chips. These are also patted dry and placed in a bowl, whereupon they are covered in olive oil, a couple of spoons of flour, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. These are completely mixed together before being spread in the roasting tin.

The tin with balanced rack was then placed in the oven at 200ish for about 15mins. At this point the tray was briefly removed in order to add a roughly chopped red onion, a green pepper, and about 6 halved, cloves of garlic, and to rotate the chops. The chops were cooked for a further 15ish mins, with the potatoes getting about 20 more after the chops came out. Green beans were boiled at the end.

Verdict
The potato dish makes this really good. The onion, pepper and especially garlic, make it really special. The chops themselves were the smallest ones so far and thus were slightly disappointing, but still tasted really good and paprika-y. 7.6 out of 10.

Pork Chops - fifth batch

This was a reprise of the classic, sweet, sticky, spicy pork chop dish, as described on a previous occasion. Again had with corn on the cob and egg fried rice.

Beneath the oniony and peppery saucery, is a lovely fatty chop

Verdict
Amazing. It should not be forgotten or underestimated how superb this dins is. Fact. 9 out of 10.

Pork Mince - fourth batch: Leftover portion

My balls were zapped in the microwave and accompanied by rigatoni pasta.

Keeping my balls in a bowl in the fridge overnight made them even tastier

Verdict
I Liked my balls even more than I liked my balls yesterday. Which was quite lot. My balls seemed even more lemony at the second time of asking and my ball sauce had a greater depth of flavour. 7.6 out of 10

Pork Mince - fourth batch

For the final batch of mince I made 12 meatballs, in a spicy tomato sauce.

An action shot of my balls a bubblin'

For the balls, in a bowl I combined the mince with a very finely chopped onion and a couple of garlic cloves which had been briefly fried. Added to this was salt and a generous amount of black and white pepper, a healthy shake of dried thyme, a pile of breadcrumbs from yesterday's stale crust, the grated zest and squeeze from a lemon and an egg. I wasn't sure whether the egg was actually required (some recipes use one, others don't), so I took a punt and annoyingly it seemed to make the mixture too wet. So I added in some more bread crumbs and thyme to try to dry it a bit.

I then rolled them in my hands into balls, tickled them in some flour and fried them in olive oil for about 10mins until they had some colour and kept their form. They were then placed to one side.

For the sauce, I began by frying a sliced red onion, 4 cloves of garlic, chunked up red and green peppers, and two finely cut up red chillies. After a few minutes two cans of chopped tomatoes were poured into the pan, along with a further half a can of water. The sauce was seasoned with salt, pepper and mixed herbs, and a splashing of Worcestershire sauce and little flourish of sugar.

I then reintroduced my balls to the pan, half submerging them in the bubbling sauce. I allowed them to bubble for 30mins, after which I threw in small tin of sweetcorn to the sauce, and put some linguine on to boil. Just before draining the pasta I added a few cubes of butter to the mixture to give it a gloss. Oooo get me.

My balls resting upon a nest of linguine covered in spicy tomato sauce

Verdict
The balls themselves were really tasty. As stated before, lots needs to be added to pork mince to make it taste of anything. The lemon and pepper in particular really came through. The sauce was fairly standard and nothing special, but the linguine made a nice change. 7.1 out of 10.

Pork Mince - third batch: forth portion

Same pies as before, this time mixing up the flavas. With peas.

Seepage occurring through the roof

Verdict
Still good. Bit minced out now though Oooooh. 6.2 out of 10.

Pork Mince - third batch: third portion

With some off-cuts of the pastry from the pies, I scooped in some mincey mixture to make a kind of patty thing.

It's a bit a like a Ginster's slice. Only less good.

It was partly cooked on the mixture making day in the oven for about 20mins, then I gave it a further 40mins on eating night. It was combined, very cleverly, with some more curried beans, and a cooked-in-the-toaster waffle bridge.

The waffle bridge leads from Pattyville to Beanstown.

Verdict.
Alright really. A bit pastry-y. Nice bridge. 5.5 out of 10.

Pork Mince - third batch: second portion

A proportion of the same mixture as previous was given a normal and sweet and potato roof to become a Cottage Pie.

Oozing is occurring from beneath the normal and sweet roof

It was heated today in the oven for about 45mins, and had with some curry-powered infused baked beans plus some garlic bread which I made from some stale bread.

This picture makes it look like there was too many beans. There wasn't.

Verdict
Really tasty. The curried beans are a brilliant friend to the mash. Enjoyable. 6.95 out of 10.

Pork Mince - third batch

These pies were made a couple of days ago, from a big pan of essentially Shepherds Pie innards, which was bulked out with extra veg.

Look at the four lovely roofs.

All the veg (onions, celery, carrots, leeks, mushrooms) were fried first, then moved out of the way so the 500g-ish portion of pork mince could be also fried. Added to the meat was about a glass of red wine, then a pint of beef stock, then another pint of water. The veg was re-introduced, followed by attempts to flavour the gravy a bit more - comprising salt and pepper, Worcestershire Sauce, Marmite, mixed herbs, and half a tin of baked beans which was found in the fridge.

Whilst this had gone on, the pastry chef had made some short-crust pastry and lined four individual pie dishes. And made enough for four roofs. These were filled with the mixture after it had cooked for about an hour and popped in the oven for 45mins.

These weren't eaten on the day of cooking. On the day of eating they were warmed in the oven for 30mins uncovered, and 30mins covered. Green beans accompanied. And a blob of brown sauce.



Now with half a roof removal, mince and his vegetable friends are revealed

Verdict
Not wishing to damn with faint praise, but these were pretty good. Not amazingly flavoured, but very satisfying to come in to on a cold work night. Can't pretend that the pork mince has any taste whatsoever itself, but the pastry, veg and gravy, combined with the brown sauce, was lovely. 6.9 out of 10.

Hocks

These hocks were the biggest faff, for the least interest ever. Disappointing.

Two simmered hocks, pre skin removal. Mmmmm hairy.

In a process that took literally hours, the hocks which had soaked in water overnight, were put in the pot with a bottle of cider, a chopped red onion, 2 carrots, 2 celery sticks, some peppercorns, a couple of bay leaves and water. This was brought to the boil, then simmered for two hours.

The hocks were then removed, cooled, and stripped of all skin and fat, and the dark meat shredded off of the bone.

In keeping with the Nigella recipe which this was basically following, to accompany we made leeks in a white sauce and plain boiled potatoes.

Try to spot some flavour on the plate. Difficult innit.

Verdict
The whole plate was almost entirely devoid of flavour. The dark meat itself tasted quite nice when had with some extra English mustard, but on the whole the meal seemed Germanic in the worst possible way. 5 out of 10 (and all of those points are for effort).

Belly joint (rolled and stuffed) - leftover portion 2

Having discovered a half-used jar of Mrs Patak's Hot Madras paste at the back of the fridge, the remaining little bit of cold bellytons was used in a quick, cheat's curry.

I assure you a belly round is in there. Look. There it is.

A diced onion and green pepper were sliced and fried. These were followed into the pan by, of all things, a tin of kidney beans to bulk matters out. 3 hefty spoons of the curry paste were added and everything was fired for a minutes. A tin of tomatoes and a bit of water completed the mixture, which was left to simmer for about 30 minutes.

Some rice was plainly boiled.

At plating stage, the rice was formatted into the circumference, a belly round plus two lumps per person centered in the rice, with the curry mixture placed atop.

Verdict
Really nice. A bit weird how nice it was actually, considering how cheaty and no efforty the whole thing was. Will have to make a more proper curry with further pig elements in the future. 7.5 out of 10.

Belly joint (rolled and stuffed) - leftover portion 1

I think I'm right in saying this is the first time we've had any porkage cold - and it was mega.

Cold fat and skin and meat = yummerstown!

Two rounds per person were placed on the plate, alongside some sweet and normal potatoes, which had been boiled yesterday and sliced and fried today. Leftover cabbage also was fried and Yorkshires, gravy and the remaining apple sauce had.

Verdict
The cold meat was super meaty and the skin and fat chewy and tough-ish, but mad tasty. The fried sweet pots were great, much more interesting the squabbled roasted ones. 8.1 out of 10.

Belly joint (rolled and stuffed)

The one sort of ready prepared element of the pig, was this amazing rolled and stuffed pork belly joint.

Look at the belly! And his friends Mr Apple Sauce and Ms Stuffing

All that was required to do to the meat was to pad his skin dry, then tickle over some white and black pepper, salt, mixed herbs and a little olive oil. High temp roasting occurred for 15mins, followed by a further hour and 10 at about 180.

That was the easy bit, all the other roast dins elements weren't done by me at all. They comprised roast potatoes, roast sweet potatoes, fried savoy cabbage, roast small carrots with red peppers onions and garlic, green beans, Yorkshires and gravy.

Apple sauce was also created. Braeburns were shaved and cut up, put in a saucepan with a little water, brown sugar shaked on and a little cinnamon added. This then cooked down.



Three rounds of belly on my plate. Except I ended up saving one. Also the picture was taken pre-apple sauce addition.

Verdict
Superb. The meat and fat combo in the rounds of pork belly was perfect. Added to the savoury sage and onion stuffing (which had absorbed meatyness flavour), plus the apple sauce, gave an amazing taste. Also all the veg was brilliant. 8.3 out 10.

Pork Chops - Forth batch

I didn't make a single element of this Saturday night bonus roast.

A full on Sunday roast, except it was a Saturday. Imagine that.

For a pre-Land of Dreams treat the two biggest pork chop fellas so far were fried and had with roast potatoes, roast sweet potatoes, roast parsnips, roast shallots and carrots, broad beans, carrot and swede mash, and Yorkshire puddings. And gravy.

Verdict
A double lovely bonus roasted treat. Except the meat wasn't roasted. It was really good though. 7 out of 10

Pork Mince - second batch: leftover portion 2

Same as before. Except more bored. So much so, forgot to write this down last night.

Even the same plate this time

Verdict
I like leftovers, but exactly the same dinner 3 days running is a bit much. 5 out of 10.

Pork Mince - second batch: leftover portion 1

Matured overnight in the fridge and then zapped.

The same dinner as yesterday (including hiding sweetcorn), however it's on a different plate

Verdict
As ever fridging slightly improves flavour I believe, however I did eat exactly the same thing yesterday. And will do again tomorrow. 6 out of 10.

Pork Mince - second batch

The key to a good lasagna is of course the cheese roof - and today's didn't disappoint.

Corf!! Look at the roof on that!

So much better than the last batch, mainly because I actually had some ingredients to flavour the essentially quite tasteless pork mince. I began by frying a chopped red onion, 4 garlic cloves, a green and orange pepper and two red chillies. I then removed these from the pan and fried the mince, seasoning with salt, pepper and mixed herbs once pretty much cooked.

The veg were then re-introduced to their mincey friends, followed by a big pour of red wine, 3/4 of a pint of beef stock, a tin of tomatoes, and a great big splash of Worcestershire sauce. This bubbled for about 30mins whilst I did yesterday's washing up and made a white sauce (flour, butter, milk and a couple of teaspoons of English mustard).

A substantial amount of cheddar was grated for the substantial roof and assemblage then occurred. Layer of mince, layer of lasagna Verdi (which means green), spread of white sauce. Repeat. And repeat again.  Finally construct cheese roof and decorate roof with a tickle of black pepper, mixed herbs and olive oil. Oven at 190ish for 20mins, rotate, further 20mins ovening, then a bonus 5 mins. Remove.

A quarter of the lasagna with some sweetcorn hiding

Verdict
It's easy to underestimate this dins a bit cos it's an old standard which has been done for years. As such though, it's absolutely great. And today the white sauce was particularly good and thick and made the whole thing nice and sloppy. Couldn't really taste the porkness, it was mainly textural. A very solid 7.3 out of 10.

Pork Chops - Third batch

Because all the greedy pigs ate all the pig leg yesterday, there was no left over meat. However there was plenty of leftover vegetables for bubble and squeak (a.k.a squbble) so two more Pork Chops were removed from the freezer to have with.

The perfectly OK but nothing special Pork Chop, alongside the underwhelming squbble

The chops were seasoned and fried in olive oil - with the scissored up vegetables and apples thrown in the pan once they were basically cooked. Mrs Yorkshire's Yorkshire puddings were ovened and some extra red wine and water was added to the bit of gravy left from yesterday. Cold Paxo balls were sat next to everything on the plate.

Verdict
Hate to say it but a tad on the dull side. Squbble was a bit boring, with none of the flavours of the component parts really coming through. Meat was OK, if nothing special particularly. Fat a bit chewy. 6.7 out of 10.

Leg of Pork 1

Full on, mega time Sunday Roast today, which fed 6 adult humans and one human child.

The Pork leg having his rest

Using the smallest of the 3 leg portions, I very simply roasted the meat, merely seasoning lightly with black pepper and a tiny bit of salt, and rubbing the skin with olive oil. Cooking commenced on a v high heat for 20 mins, then turned down and cooked for a further hour and 15. Par boiled potatoes were then shaken in around the meat, getting fully coated in the lovely juices which had been emitted.

After a further half an hour the meat was taken out to rest, and was replaced by apple wedges and shallots.

Veg comprised a roasted combination of peppers, red onion and small carrots; roast parsnips and sweet potatoes, fried savoy cabbage; asparagus fried with lemon and butter. Paxo was also had. In balls.

I only took a small portion because I am pre-obese

Verdict
An incredible Sunday lunch. The pork itself was proper amazing. Crackling could have been slightly cracklier, but its softness made it very eatable and it was strongly flavoured. And the flesh melted in the mouth and was double porky. 8.9 out of 10.

Pork Mince - first batch: leftover portion 3

Same as leftover portion 1. Although I read the bottle of the hot sauce again and it turns out it's actually called Blazing Inferno Island Pepper Sauce.

In order to visually differentiate from yesterday, I arranged the rice and mince adjacently

Verdict
Bored now. Very hot though. And I think I prefer the rice configuration to be in the round. Point deduction. 5.5 out of 10.

Pork Mince - first batch: leftover portion 2

This wasn't eaten by me - it was a post-Parents Evening dins. I put two small jacket potatoes in the oven and the mixture was zapped and placed beside them in a bowl.

Mince placed next to two JPs. Complicated.

Verdict
Possibly even more boring than yesterday. Filling at least. Yawn. 5 out of 10.

Pork Mince - first batch: leftover portion 1

Much better this evening having loaded up the bolognese with Island Inferno Hot Pepper Sauce, zapping it, and enjoying with boiled rice.

Miles better with the addition of rice and Island Inferno Hot Pepper Sauce

Verdict
A combination of the dish being left in the fridge overnight, the rice, and most significantly the Island Inferno Hot Pepper Sauce made this way more tasty and interesting than last night. It's gained a whole extra point in fact. 6.5 out of 10.

Pork Mince - first batch

It was very much a case of using up what I happened to have in as I haven't been to the shops in a while, hence last night's bolognese-type effort was decidedly meh.

The really rather dull pork minced bolognese-type disappointment

I fried up an onion and some garlic, put this to one side, then fried the 500-ish grams of pork mince. A chopped red chilli and two chopped red peppers were added and fried a bit more. This was seasoned with some salt and pepper and a sprinkle of mixed herbs. I found a fat carrot in the fridge so I diced that and threw it in, followed by the re-introduction of the onions and garlic.

Two tins of chopped tomatoes were mixed in, and to try to add some flavour a squeeze of tomato puree, a generous shake of Worcestershire sauce, and because I didn't have any red wine or beef stock, I stirred in about 3 teaspoons of Marmite. I removed the corns off of the remaining two coblettes from yesterday and put those in too.

I let this simmer for about 40 mins and cooked up some fusilli pasta. Grated cheese was tickled over once in the bowl.

Verdict
Really rather dull unfortunately. Distinctly lacking in excitement. The pork mince itself reminded me most of Quorn mince - i.e tasteless. In the future I shall be required to add much more robust flavours to it. There are 3 portions left of this batch. 5.5 out of 10.

Pork Chops - second batch

Last night was the first dins which catered for more than two persons (it was three), and it was an old favourite - a sort of sweet and spicy, bbq-ish pork chop effort.



One and a third pork chops (plus bonus fat) under the sticky pepper and onion sauce, with cobbletts and egg fried rice

I have been doing this dish for years, inspired as I remember, by a Hugh Firmly recipe for a spare ribs sauce. And it is always, being modest, superb.

I start it by squishing 4 cloves of garlic with a fork and adding a bit of salt to the resulting mess. This is scraped into the oven dish. Then sliced up and chucked into the dish are a red onion, a red and yellow pepper, a lump of ginger and two red chillies.

The part which I do admit seems rather cheaty commences next to create the sauce. A very generous dolloping of tomato ketchup is added to the chopped items, followed by a good squeeze of honey and an equally good shake of soy sauce. A teaspoon of English mustard goes in, finally followed by a couple of heaped tablespoons of dark brown sugar.

All this was well mixed up before the 4 pork chops were turned around in it, making sure they were covered by the mixture, before putting in the oven at about 190. I give them about 20 minutes before a rotation, followed by a further 20 minutes.

To accompany I made egg fried rice and boiled up some corn on the cobbletts.

Verdict
This meal is always so mad tasty. The fat is literally off the hook! All sort of crispy and roasted on the outside and super smooth and creamy inside. And eating this meal with a person who doesn't want to eat their fat is extra good for us, because we end up with bonus fat. Woo-hoo! 8.5 out of 10.

Pork Chops - first batch

The first three of the 15 chops were cooked tonight - and not by me! I didn't make any of tonight's dins, I did however, yum it all up.




The first of the pork chops, fried, with horseradish mash, onion gravy on the top and some peas and broad beans in the background


I had inadvertently taken the bag out of the freezer which contained 3 chops this morning (all the other bags contain two), so the triumvirate were seasoned lightly with salt and pepper and simply fried.

Mash was made and had cheese, chopped spring onions and horseradish mixed into it. The remaining gravy left over from the weekend (which I had failed to mention we'd had with the previous two meals) had some fried red onion and garlic added to it, and some frozen peas and broad beans were boiled up.

Verdict
A really satisfying, and simple mid-week dins. The pork chops were really juicy and flavoursome from the frying - didn't dry out at all. And the mash successfully avoided being boring, baby food. The horsers made it special. With lots of thanks to Mel, 7 out of 10.

Rack Joint (re-fried)

First example of some leftovers, was the re-frying of the remaining 3 rack joint sections.

The remaining re-fried rack joint sections (well the one and a half bits which I had)

They were fried in the new frying pan purchased from T.K Maxxium last week, along with leftover par-boiled potatoes from yesterday and sliced onion. The remaining apples and a bit of onion scrapings were zapped in the microwave in their little ramekin. Some green beans were also boiled.

Verdict
Well yummsters. The re-frying really brought the fat back to life - way more so than if we'd just had them cold. And it gave a bit of colour to the white meat from inner selection of the rack joint. The potatoes were also very tasty. A solid 7.5 out of ten.

Rack joint

A rack joint, it turns out, is essentially six chops, conjoined on a big base bone. And it's brilliant.




The rack joint in his tin (with potatoes, apples and onions)



Kind of following a recipe from The Whole Hog by Jonathan Trotter (ha ha his name is like a trotter from off of a pig), I began by rubbing a little olive oil and salt into the skin. Then the joint was roasted on high heat for half an hour.

In the meantime I par-boiled some potatoes and cut some apples into wedges, removing the core, and peeled some shallots. The potatoes were then added to the meat roasting tin, and put back in on the high heat for 15 mins. At this point I also brushed the side and roof of the joint (but not the crackling) with some honey and wholegrain mustard which I'd mixed up in a ramekin. This was cooked for 30mins on a lower heat. Then the apples were thrown in for the final 20mins.

We ate it with some asparagus, fried with butter, black pepper and the squeeze from out of a lemon.

Verdict
Amazing! Literally mental. The pork had mad flavour with the fat being super creamy. And the potatoes with the grizzled onions and apples made a perfect accompaniment. Has to be 9 out of 10 (I'm deducting a point due to some of the crackling being a bit too hard).

One and a half sections of a rack joint per-person

Spare ribs

First pig item to be cooked and eaten were the Spare Ribs.

Spare ribs in a sweet and sticky sauce (with some egg fried rice)

Whilst watching the rugby on Saturday morning, marinating was commenced, basically using a Nigella recipe from the Kitchen book. Actually the only difference between what Nigella said and what I did, was the substitution of a lemon for lime, because I didn't have a lime. Also at the time of the commencement of the marinade I was ginger-less. This was rectified after a subsequent trip to Waitrose.

It was a fun marinading using a bag to squish all the ingredients together around the ribs. It comprised of:

• Juice and zest of a lemon (my idea, not Nigella's)
• 2 tbl spoons of sesame oil (actually i think Nigella said groundnut, but again, didn't have that)
• 2 tbl spoons dark brown sugar
• A broken up cinnamon stick
• 3 red chillies deseeded and chopped
• 125mls of pineapple juice
• A lump of chopped ginger
• One red and one yellow pepper sliced ( my invention entirely - Nigella never even thought of that).

That stayed in the fridge until teatime, whereupon everything was poured into a roasting tin and cooked for about an hour. At the end what liquid remained, and slightly disappointingly there wasn't much, was put into a saucepan and bit more brown sugar added to form a thick syrup. This was poured over the ribs on the plate. I made egg fried rice to accompany.

Verdict
Excellent. Strongest flavour on the meat was lemon and cinnamon. Might have been better if the meat fell off the bone a bit more. This would have required a longer cooking time, probably on a lower heat with a foil roof. Difficult to grade with no benchmark to compare to, but I think 7.5 out of 10 sounds fair.

Introduction

Hello. I have bought half a pig for £95.

I've never done this before. Either buy half a pig, or do a blog. I'm mainly writing this down so I can look back and feel smug about how many dinners I'll eventually have had for my 95squids.

Some background. A friend of mine's Dad is part of a collective in the New Forest who have been raising some pigs. He asked if I'd be interested in buying half of one, and being a pork enthusiast I said 'yes please'. Also I thought it sounded quite funny having half a pig.

Me looking at the pigs (when they were alive) 

Skip forward a bit and a nice lady came to my flat with a big bag containing all the pig bits. Removing them from the big plastic sack was awfully exciting and not unlike Crimbo day. If all you got was some pig meat. Lining up all the individually wrapped parts formed a piggy crime scene which I have to admit made me giddy with anticipation.

The crime scene

Like a man from off of a CSI programme (which I've never watched) I wrote down a list of all the components. They are:

• 2 x trotters
• 1 x kidney
• 3 x leg joints
• 1 x stuffed belly
• 2 x shoulder joints
• 1 x rack joint
• 2 x hocks
• A bag of spare ribs (I didn't count them)
• 15 x chops
• 2.2kg of mince

Having filled 3 out of 4 draws of my normal sized freezer, the next step is to start cooking and eating the various bit over the next little while. This shall be catalogued in this blog. How exciting.