pork

Tod man mu, or spicy Thai pork meatballs

August 18, 2010
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It’s strange that most cuisines have some sort of variation on the humble meatball, and I think it’s a little sad that we Brits don’t think more highly of them.  There’s a world of things that can be done with this method. This is the Thai version. Tod man mu are heavily spiced little pork [...]

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Dan Birk at The Devonshire Fell, Burnsall, North Yorkshire

March 24, 2010
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Dan Birk, cooking at The Devonshire Fell restaurant in Burnsall in the Yorkshire Dales, is an up and coming young chef with a great future ahead of him. His food is elegant and unfussy, stylish and well executed. Dan Birk is definitely one to watch.

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Slow roasted pork belly with fennel and coriander crackling

October 12, 2009
Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's slow roasted pork belly with fennel and coriander

A pork belly gives a lot of bang for buck. It’s a cheap cut that benefits from simple, hands-off cooking.  A few herbs, some salt and pepper and a few hours in a low oven are all you need. First, the joint. A cut from the thick end of the belly weighing between 1 and [...]

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Cote de porc a la charcutiere

July 19, 2009
Cote de porc a la charcutiere

“Is there any better, more noble, more magical animal than the pig?” – Anthony Bourdain. Probably not, Tony. This dish illustrates exactly what Bourdain means.  It’s quick, easy, cheap but still manages to be quite understated and authentic.  It’s a French classic that showcases the pig perfectly. The key to the whole dish is the [...]

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How to make a pork pie

June 11, 2009
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I feel like I’ve mastered a mysterious, secret art. I made a pork pie, and it was easy. More than that, it tasted astounding. Here’s how. Start with the pastry. The pastry is unusual as it’s made with hot water. It seems to go against everything you know about making pastry, but it does work. [...]

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Porchetta, or slow roasted Italian loin of pork

April 29, 2009
Porchetta, slow roasted Italian loin of pork with crackling

The loin of a pig is a magnificent cut of meat, a dense strip of heavy meat flanked by part of the belly and encased in skin destined to crackle, nested in a cradle of bones. As a joint, this has everything. Preparation is simple, and the most important parts happen in the butcher’s shop. [...]

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Slow roasted pork belly

March 29, 2009
How to slowly roast a piece of pork belly to produce tender meat and crispy crackling.

These are challenging times. The talk at work is of mergers and takeovers, arrears and repossession, cost reduction and redundancy. People are feeling the pinch. A slowly roasted pork belly can’t fail to lift the mood. A cheap, easy and forgiving cut, pork belly is at it’s best when cooked lazily in a low oven, [...]

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Chinese five spice pork belly with noodles

February 15, 2009
Chinese five spice pork belly

Pork belly is cheap, robust, easy to cook and very tasty, especially when roasted. The thing to realise about this cut is that the point of cooking it has little to do with the meat and everything to do with the skin. Crackling is the real draw here. To give a roast pork belly an [...]

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