My Food Geek » pork

Pigs, cookies, and you

geek — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:24:17 +0000

Ever want to eat ALL the parts of the pig on one cookie? Maybe you’d like a quick map of the cuts of pork? This cookie is for you! http://www.flickr.com/photos/alizinha/3384338469/

Pork Roulade, with my apprentice

geek — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 02:00:31 +0000

Last week, the apprentice and I tackled the pork roulade. A roulade can be pretty much anything that is rolled up and filled with something yummy. I haven’t really made one of these since I was back in culinary school a looooong time ago (read: over five years). I thought it would be fun to try to teach something that I wasn’t already a pro making.

In this instance, we used a pork roast loin and filled it with pea greens, goat cheese, and walnuts. The pork was pan seared on all sides and then roasted in a hot oven until just cooked through. We topped off the pork with a pomegranate reduction; the sweet, tart pomegranate matched very well with the savory pork. We finished the dish with roasted fingerling potatoes.

This dish was a bit more intricate than the last one but it still wasn’t all that difficult to make. The hardest part of the dish is preparing the pork for stuffing; if my directions don’t work for you, there are plenty of tutorials out there to help you.

Pork Roulade

3-4 lb Pork loin roast
3 c Dark leafy greens
1 c Chopped walnuts
5 oz goat cheese
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Pomegranate Glaze

Juice of one pomegranate
1 shallot finely diced
4-6 tablespoons butter

Pre-heat oven to 425F

To prepare the roast for the roulade, it needs to be butterfly cut four times. The pork will basically be cut and unrolled, much like a carpet is unrolled.

Cut the long side of the pork about 1/4 of the way from the bottom all the way through until you get to about 1/2 inch from the end. Roll the fat side of the meat off of the new thin slice. Repeat two more times, starting your next cut where you left the previous cut attached.. The pork should now be about four times as wide as it was and only a quarter of the thickness.

Cover the meat with plastic wrap and pound flat with a mallet or small frying pan. Try to get the meat to a uniform thickness.

Spread the goat cheese all over the meat leaving a one inch border on the left side.
Top with walnuts, salt and pepper, greens, and olive oil. Starting at the right side of the meat, roll tightly like a jelly roll. With the seam on the bottom, tie tightly with butchers twine. You can tie it any way you like just as long as everything stays tightly together.

Run oil all over the outside of the roulade and season with salt and pepper. Sear all sides over high heat until a dark crust forms. When all sides are seared, move to an over-safe pan and cook for 25-40 minutes depending on how well you like your pork cooked.

Return pan to heat and deglaze with pomegranate juice scraping any burnt bits off the bottom of the pan. Add shallots and honey and cook until reduced by half. Strain sauce into a clean saucepan and reheat. Whisk is butter one tablespoon at a time until the sauce coats the back of a spoon.

When pork reaches final doneness, remove from the oven, tent it with foil, and let it rest for ten minutes before slicing. Remove butcher’s twine and slice thinly. Serve with pomegranate sauce.

Quebec with a touch of Spain

geek — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:06:53 +0000

The other day I decided to try turning a Quebecois favorite, the Tourtiere (or pork pie), into a Spanish hand-held treat, an empanada.

Growing up, these pork pies were almost always a winter food; more specifically, Christmas food. I’m really not sure why but my dad says that’s just the way it was in his house and that’s pretty much the way it was in ours. Even wikipedia agrees with my dad citing, “It is a traditional Christmas and/or Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve dish in Quebec”, so he must be right, non?

So what is this Quebecois pork pie thing? Usually a tourtiere consists of cooked ground pork and potatoes heavily spiced with cloves, allspice, and sometimes cinnamon all wrapped up in a double-crusted pie. I thought they’d make for a good filling for an empanada so I gave it a try.

The filling is a piece of cake to make, brown up some pork, add some spices, stir in the potatoes, and you’re done. The empanada pastry was a little bit more work, but with the help of a kitchen-aid it wasn’t all that bad. I was expecting something more like a pie dough but once it started coming together it was obvious that it was more like a bread dough. The bread-like dough made over-stuffing the pies all the easier (which is a good idea).

The verdict? I think they were a success. I would have preferred more of a pie-like dough, but they still were very good. They were a bit more work than just making a few meat pies but they were worth the effort. This tray of pies fed me for dinner and then a few lunches during the week!

Tourtiere filling

1 lb ground pork
3 potatoes peeled and cut into 1 inch dice
1 tsp fresh ground cloves
1 tsp fresh ground allspice
salt and pepper
3 tbls oil

Place potatoes in a large pot of cold water and cook until fork tender. Drain the water and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and sautee the pork until lightly browned. Add the spices and potatoes and check seasoning.

Remove from pan and cool before filling the dough.

Empanada dough

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup warm water

1 cup of oil for frying

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, add all the wet ingredients.
Mix for a few minutes until well combined and dough ball forms.

Take it out and knead for about 3 minutes. Let the dough rest wrapped in plastic-wrap for 15 minutes.

Divide into 12 pieces, then roll into 4 inch circles.

Place 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of filling in the center of each circle. Gently fold over the dough to from a half circle. Seal edges tightly with a fork. Repeat until all the dough is filled. (all the filling may not be used)

Pre-heat the oil in a frying pan at about a medium temperature.
Fry for about 5 minutes on each side until golden brown.