Pork – Page 5 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Stuffed Zucchini

My new Microplane Ultra Coarse grater came in very handy when I was making this recipe. It’s not often that I find a giant zucchini on my desk at work, but Lisa brought me one of the bounties from her garden earlier this week. Zucchini bread and stuffed zucchini were both suggested by co-workers. I opted for the latter because I already had the ingredients handy; ground pork and bacon were in the fridge.

I’ve never owned a grater before–I’ve always used a vegetable peeler if I needed grated cheese when cooking and I simply shaved the cheese off. For a recipe like this, a peeler would have taken me an extra 10 minutes; it took less than one with the Microplane for me to grate all of the Piave I needed.

I realized how easy my cooking life would have been if only I’ve purchased one years ago. Without putting too much pressure on the grater, the Piave cheese I used with this recipe easily fell on the plate like soft snow. I loved the rubberized stand at the end of the grater: it kept it steady against a plate even when my cheese wedge came down to a small knob. The hefty handle also had a very firm grip–my hands didn’t even feel like they did any work.

Now I just have to find more recipes that require grating everything I can get my hands on!

Ingredients:
1 large zucchini, halved lengthwise, each chopped in 2 or 3 large pieces
1/4 lb of ground pork
4 strips of bacon, chopped
shiitake mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 small wedge of Piave cheese
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
red chili flakes
salt
oil

1. Take each zucchini piece and spoon out the flesh to make them hollow like boats. Roughly chop including the seeds. Set aside. Place the boats on a lined baking sheet and brush with some olive oil. Preheat the oven to 350º.
2. Make the filling. In a large skillet, render some fat by cooking the bacon pieces. Add garlic and sauté until brown. Add the onions until soft. Add the ground pork and brown while occasionally stirring to avoid burning. Season with chili flakes.
3. In the meantime, pass the zucchini flesh through a sieve to remove excess water. You might have to do this one more time before adding to the filling. When ground pork is cooked through, add the zucchini flesh to the skillet, stir until well-combined and keep cooking for another 5 minutes.
4. Salt the zucchini boats. Spoon the filling into the zucchini boats without pressing in. Finish off with a generous sprinkling of grated Piave. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the zucchini boats have heated through and a crust has formed at the top. Best served hot so the filling doesn’t dry up.

Recommended tool/s:
Microplane Ultra Coarse Grater

Unctuous Pork Belly

Could there be a better word to describe pork belly other than unctuous? I’ve loved that word ever since I experienced the cooking of Chef Fergus Henderson in London back in 2005. Seeing that word in the New York Times a few weeks ago when they featured Adam Perry Lang’s Serious Barbecue recipe brought back good food memories. I saved the barbecue article and it came in handy when it was time to inaugurate the Dr.’s backyard with a small get-together.

We started the marinating process a day early and braised the meat for five hours the day of. It was a lot of time, but the result was definitely worth it. Note that during Step 4, you might need an extra hand transferring the pork from the baking dish to the grilling basket to keep it in one piece. The meat will fall apart with the gentlest poke and it will even be softer after grilling. Also, the original recipe called for bourbon, but whisky worked just fine for us.

I transferred the sieved braising juice to a Tupperware and stored it in the freezer: imagine the fried eggs we can cook with all that belly fat…

Ingredients:
1 4-pound piece of pork belly, skin-on
1/4 cup whisky
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsps unsalted butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 sprigs of parsley, roughly chopped
a splash of cider vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
red pepper flakes
salt, pepper

For the marinade:
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 sprigs of rosemary
3 sprigs of thyme
1 serrano pepper, sliced
10 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
salt, pepper

1. Put the pork belly in a large freezer bag with all the marinade ingredients plus 1 cup of water. Squeeze to remove air, then seal and refrigerate overnight.
2. When ready to cook, heat oven to 275º. Place pork in a 13-by-9-inch baking dish with marinade, butter and enough water to cover. Cover with heavy-duty foil, crimping edges tightly. Braise in oven 5 hours; let rest in pan, covered with the same foil, 2 hours.
3. Meanwhile, simmer whisky in a small pan over medium heat until alcohol aroma fades. Stir in sugar, parsley, vinegar and pepper flakes. Cover and set aside.
4. Heat a grill. Carefully remove pork from pan and place in a grilling basket. Grill skin-side down over medium-low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until skin is crisp and golden. Remove from heat and brush skin side with 1/4 of the whisky glaze, then return to heat, skin-side up, for another 5 minutes. Remove pork from heat once more and brush meat side with 1/4 of the glaze, then return to heat, meat-side up, for another 5 minutes. Repeat with remaining glaze on both sides.
5. Place pork skin side up on cutting board and let rest for 10 minutes before taking apart and eating.

Chicken-Shank-Chorizo Casserole

La Tienda is my new favorite online store. When a package of cooking chorizo arrived in the mail last week, I knew I had to make a very hearty stew with it, I just didn’t know with what. At Whole Foods, I debated if I should pay $13 for two duck confit legs. The current state of the economy won out and I picked up four chicken legs instead for less than $4. I splurged on a $7 ham shank though because I didn’t want the good chorizo to be alone in the pot.

While cooking, the entire apartment smelled really good. Sautéing the chorizo with the garlic and onions was my favorite part, right after uncovering the pot after two hours of braising time. It was delicious with rice for dinner and it will be delicious tomorrow with pasta for lunch.

Ingredients:
1 ham shank
4 chicken legs
4 pieces of cooking chorizo, chopped
4 ribs of celery, chopped
4 carrots, peeled, chopped
4 small potatoes, peeled, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 sprigs of thyme
oil, salt, pepper

1. In a large Dutch oven, heat some oil and brown chicken legs on both sides. Remove them to a plate. Add a little bit more oil and brown the ham shank on all sides. Remove to the same plate.
2. In the same pot with the rendered fat, sauté the garlic and the onions. Add the chorizo and the potatoes and cook until slightly browned. Stir in the celery and the carrots with the thyme.
3. Add back the chicken and the shank. Add enough water to submerge the meats and let simmer. Season with salt and pepper. In the meantime, preheat the oven 350º. When the oven is ready, transfer the pot, covered, inside and braise for up to 2 hours. Carefully remove the pot from the oven and uncover. Stir and serve with rice, pasta or crusty bread.

Crispy Pigs’ Ears Salad

I’ve made pigs’ ears salad at home before, but this version is crispier, saltier and more perfect with beer. This is for my friend, Hafeez, who liked the Irving Mill version a lot when we ate there. At home, I fried the ears in really hot oil while standing on a short step-ladder. I wanted to be as far away from the skillet as much as possible, but I also wanted to see how the ears were cooking. It must have been a sight because my father stayed to watch me avoid getting splattered by very hot oil.

After you’ve fried the first batch of pigs’ ears, you want them to stay crispy while you finish the rest. Don’t cover the skillet when frying because that will trap moisture in. I used a slotted spoon to remove the fried ears and I transferred them to a stainless steel colander to drain the excess oil. You don’t want to use paper towels like usual because the ears will end up sitting on moist paper while you finish cooking.

You can use almost any bitter greens for this salad to stand up to the salty fried pigs’ ears. I used spinach, but spicy arugula, endive or radicchio are great substitutes.

Ingredients:
4 pigs’ ears, thoroughly washed
1 bunch of spinach
1 red onion, thinly sliced
half a bunch of parsley, finely chopped
oil, salt, pepper

1. In a large stock pot, cook pigs’ ears in enough boiling water to submerge them for an hour and a half. When cooked, remove and slice in strips.
2. Heat enough frying oil in a large skillet to deep-fry sliced ears. In small batches, add pigs’ ears and fry for 6 minutes. Do not cover skillet. When fried, use a slotted spoon to remove ears from hot oil and into a colander to drain excess oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper while fried ears are hot. Set aside to cool.
3. Assemble salad when ears are almost cool enough to eat. Toss ears with remaining ingredients in a large salad bowl. Season with pepper.

Pork Roast Thai Green Spices

This Jamie Oliver lamb recipe may seem to require a lot of ingredients but once you have them, all you need to do is toss everything together to marinate the meat. I substituted the lamb with pork roast and served it to guests for my mother’s 61st birthday. I didn’t even use salt because all the herbs were enough to give the roast a delicious Thai-inspired flavor. You’ll find how amazing the lemongrass smell lingers in the meat even after several reheats of the leftovers.

Ingredients:
1 pork roast, bone-in, about 5 pounds

For the marinade:
1 stalk lemongrass, cut in short pieces, smashed
10 kaffir lime leaves, chopped
1 medium-sized knob of ginger, peeled, sliced
half a head of garlic, minced
half a bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
4 Thai chilies, chopped
juice from 3 limes
olive oil

1. Marinate the pork roast. Pat pork roast dry with a paper towel. Transfer to a large glass container that you can use to marinate. Stir together the olive oil and lime juice in a small bowl and drizzle all over the roast. Stuff every nook with garlic and herbs. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge overnight.
2. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 425Âº. Remove the pork from the refrigerator and let rest at room temperature until oven is ready. Place an empty aluminum foil-lined roasting pan in the oven while the oven is pre-heating. When oven is ready, transfer the roast to the pan and cook for 45 minutes.
3. Reduce heat to 325Âº and roast an additional hour, or about 10 minutes per pound. Using a meat thermometer, the thickest part of the roast must be around 130Âº. Remove to a chopping block and let stand for half an hour before carving.