Pork Life

I've spent a lot of my life not liking pork. I think it was something to do with the sweet/savoury mental trauma of roast pig plus apple sauce. I used to save the apple sauce til last, being very, very careful not to contaminate it with gravy, and have it as a pre-pudding palate cleanser. Anyway, now that I'm a grown up I love it and can thoroughly recommend the following recipe (adapted from one of Nigella's) which is a quick and delicious combination of pork steaks with mustard, cream and apple juice...

Make a pig of yourself

Mustard Pork Steaks

2 pork steaks

2 teaspoons garlic oil

125ml apple juice

1 tablespoon grainy mustard

75ml double cream

Bash the steaks with a rolling pin. Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the steaks over a medium-high heat for about 5 minutes a side, or until they have a nice brown crust. Remove them from the pan and keep them warm in the oven while you pour in the apple juice to de-glaze the pan. Let it bubble for a couple of minutes, then stir in the mustard and the cream, and cook for another couple of minutes. Pour over the steaks and eat without delay. Nigella suggests serving with gnocchi; I had mash.

Gammon style

There's nothing my in-laws like less than a bit of gammon at Christmas - as I discovered a few years ago when I replaced the turkey with a pig. But we are having it again this year, served cold with my cranberry, orange and ginger compote.

Glazed gammon

I had a trial run today - a 6lb (2.75kg) gammon from the local farm which I cooked in ginger beer before glazing it with marmalade, cloves and brown sugar.

Gammon cooked in ginger beer with marmalade glaze

Wash the gammon under some cold water, then put it in a big pan with 3 bottles of ginger beer and enough water to cover it completely. Bring it to the boil, then transfer it - with the hot liquid - into a slow cooker and cook on medium for about 4 hours. (You could carry on cooking it on the hob, but then you would be tied to the house for several hours).  It's cooked when a meat thermometer stabbed into it reads 71 degrees. Take it out of the slow cooker and pre-heat your oven to 220/gas 7. Meanwhile, make the glaze by mixing together 175ml marmalade, 1 tablespoon English mustard, 50g brown sugar and half a teaspoon of ground cloves. Cut off the skin, leaving a layer of fat on the joint. Spoon on the glaze and pop it in the oven for about 20 minutes until it's nicely brown.

You may want to score the fat with a sharp knife to make a diamond lattice pattern and stud it with a few whole cloves before putting on the glaze.

Pig out

I have never met a child that doesn't love bacon. Ergo, children love gammon steaks. Add sugar and they love them even more. Tonight's meal is honey-mustard gammon steaks with sweet potato mash and broccoli. All made very quickly.

Honey-mustard gammon steak and sweet potato mash

Honey-mustard gammon steaks

2 gammon steaks (feeds one mother and 2 children)
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons mustard
a knob of butter

Pre-heat grill to medium-high. Place the butter in a roasting tin or similar and put it under the grill for a few moments to melt. Mix together the honey and mustard, adding a few grinds of black pepper. Pour it into the tin with the melted butter and drag the steaks through it. Turn them over and grill for about 5 minutes each side.

For the sweet potato mash I used equal quantities of sweet and normal potatoes (about 500g for the 3 of us) which I boiled in salted water with a clove of garlic. When they were cooked I drained and mashed them with some butter and a little milk.

National Sausage Week

Did you know it's National Sausage Week? You can read all about it at lovepork.co.uk. Gen up on a whole host of piggy facts, join the British Sausage Appreciation Society, or even submit your favourite porky jokes (everyone knows that German sausage jokes are the wurst...).

We are having pork and leek sausages tonight in celebration of NSW. I have baked them, for ease and because they develop a nice even tan cooked this way; grilled are good but need attending to; and child 1 claims to like fried best (can he really tell the difference?) - but I hate the way they splatter and roll over when you're not watching them so they end up black one side and pink the other. Whichever method you choose, do not prick them and do not cook at too high a temperature or they will burst.

The most important ingredient is a happy pig

This is my favourite sausage recipe, from an old Sainsbury's recipe card:

Spicy Sausage Ragout 

1lb sausages
1 onion, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 yellow pepper, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
2 teaspoons paprika
1 x 397g tin chopped tomatoes
1 x 284ml tub of fresh chicken stock (or make up your own with a stock cube)
1 tablespoon fresh oregano (or use a teaspoon of dried)
1 teaspoon brown sugar

Fry the sausages in a little oil until evenly browned, then remove them and set aside. Fry the onions until softened, add the peppers and cook for another 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining ingredients and season. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Slice the sausages into bite size pieces, add to the pan and simmer for another 10 minutes. Serve with pasta and a sprinkling of parmesan.