Pork – Page 13 – Writing With My Mouth Full

French Ham with Lavender

How do you dress up ham? If you’re Filipino, there’d be pineapple slices and cherries on top, but if you’re French, you use lavender. I went all over Manhattan to find fresh lavender sprigs and finally found them at a Whole Foods store in Chelsea. I’m not French, of course, but who says I can’t snazz up my ham like they do?

Ingredients:
1 fresh ham, 3 to 4 pounds
1/2 cup garlic, cut into slivers
4 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs rosemary
4 sprigs lavender
1 medium can of diced tomatoes
1 cup lavender honey
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp fennel seed
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven at 325Âº. Score the ham crosswise and place in an oven-safe roaster pot of boiling salted water. Simmer for 3 minutes and remove to a platter.
2. Insert half of the garlic into the ham using a knife. Place ham back in pot of water and add the rest of the garlic, all the herbs and the tomatoes. Bring to a boil.
3. Bake in oven for 3 hours, basting occasionally. Cover with aluminum foil if ham browns too quickly. Remove ham from pot when cooked.
4. Reduce remaining liquid over medium fire. Stir in honey, zest and juice of lemon and fennel seeds. Use as glaze for ham.

Related post/s:
Where to get lavender honey

Homemade Meatballs

This is my basic recipe for making meatballs at home using either ground pork, beef or lamb. Depending on the dish I am using the meatballs for, I add breadcrumbs and an egg to make sure they remain intact when added. For more tagine and stew dishes, I skip both, substitute the nutmeg for cumin and usually add some mint.

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground meat
1/4 cup of parsley, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp plain dried breadcrumbs
1 large egg
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
salt, pepper

1. Combine and mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Form golf-sized balls with your hands using some breadcrumbs to help them stick together.
2. Arrange on a baking sheet and freeze for an hour. Once frozen, transfer to a re-sealable bag.

Artichokes with Pork Sausage

This recipe is from the All-Star Thanksgiving 2004 show on FoodTV demonstrated by Tyler Florence. Getting the flesh of the artichoke is a lot of work, so a Filipino father is necessary, but it’s also a wonderful Thanksgiving dish that doesn’t involve any turkey. Your artichokes should look like this after trimming them to expose the light green flesh.

The white hairs and the pink leaves should be scooped out and discarded after simmering in the flavorful broth. They are easier and cleaner to remove cooked than raw. You need 8 artichokes for this recipe to have enough by the time you clean them out.

Ingredients:
8 artichokes, trimmed down and halved
2 large pork sausages
1/2 cup chicken stock
sage leaves
2 shallots, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
the other half of the lemon, thinly sliced
2 tbsps unsalted butter
salt, pepper, olive oil

For the flavorful broth:
1/4 cup of dry white wine
2 quarts of water
a handful of fresh parsley
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 bay leaves
half a lemon
salt, pepper

1. Bring the flavorful broth to a simmer in a large pot. Add the artichokes, cover the pot over medium heat for a little less than 20 minutes, until there is no resistance when a knife is inserted into the base of the artichokes.
2. Spoon out the artichokes carefully and try to leave the halves intact for a better presentation. Carefully scoop out the hairy choke from the center and discard.
3. In a hot, deep skillet, pour some olive oil and brown and cook the sausages for about 10 minutes. Remove and set aside. Using the same skillet, add a drizzle of olive oil to the pan and cook the sage leaves until fragrant. Add shallots, garlic and lemon slices and cook for another 2 minutes. Add chicken stock, bring to a simmer and emulsify with butter and a little bit more oil until reduced and thickened.
4. Return artichokes and sausages in the pan and cook over low heat for a few minutes to warm them up. Spoon out and serve by topping with leftover parsley.

Pork Chops with Dijon Mustard Sauce

This recipe came from Jonathan Reynolds of The New York Times Sunday magazine. If you don’t have veal stock, chicken stock will do.

Ingredients:
4 pieces 1 1/4-inch thick center-cut pork chops, bone-in
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1/2 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup veal stock
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
salt, pepper

1. Rub salt and pepper on the pork chops. Melt butter in the oil using a deep skillet over high heat. Add the pork chops and brown them on each side for about 5 minutes. Reduce heat if they brown too quickly.
2. Remove chops to a platter and pour off most of the fat. Add shallots and cook over medium-heat until softened. Add wine and bring to a boil, scraping brown bits off the bottom of the skillet.
3. Stir in the veal stock and return the pork chops to the skillet. Bring the sauce to a simmer, cover and cook chops until tender, about 25 minutes. Remove chops to a warm platter and tent with aluminum foil to keep warm.
4. Raise the heat and boil juices to reduce to half, about 2 minutes. Add cream and boil for another 2 minutes until sauce thickens. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in mustard. Spoon over sauce over the chops and serve.

Meatball Soup with Watercress

Meatballs are so easy and fun to make even with the least expensive ground pork available from your supermarket. They make this simple soup recipe chunkier and heartier.

Ingredients:
half a pound of ground pork
2 bunches of watercress, thoroughly washed
1 large carrot, finely chopped
2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
chicken stock
1 egg
dusting of flour
salt, pepper

1. Make the meatballs. Combine ground pork, carrots and celery with a little salt and pepper. Form golf-sized balls with your hands using a little flour to help them stick together.
2. In boiling chicken stock, slowly add your meatballs to cook until they all float. Simmer and add watercress until wilted. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Turn off the heat and slowly whisk in a fresh egg using a fork. Ladle in bowls and serve.

Related post/s:
Good ol’ chicken stock