Pork Recipes Many ways
Stephen Doyle
Election night party (not Don’s) Starters (aka “sticky fingers”)
Adverts advocating “Get pork on your fork” and leather clad chefs as “Pork Stars” were amusing but we weren’t their target market.
These pork dishes are more ideas than specific recipes. Never before have we had so much access to a plethora of different recipes. In the words of Adam Bandt “just google it.”
Serve with 2019 Schubert (best match) or 2019 Riesling (next best)
Ingredients
2 pork ribs
Rub liberally with peanut and some sesame oil.
Lightly smear ribs with Sambal Oelek chilli paste mixed with fish sauce.
Sprinkle over: shaved palm sugar, slivers of mandarin rind and juice, ginger and garlic (finely cut) and Szechuan pepper, coriander seeds and pieces of star anise.
Serve with shredded coriander and mint
Method (Vietnamese style)
Start roasting the oiled ribs rubbed with chilli and fish sauce. Keep the palm sugar and mandarin /orange etc for adding half way through cooking as you don’t want the sugars to burn too much. When cooked, cut into individual fingers for dunking into sauces
Shortcuts
Buy a prepared sauce mix or even ribs vacuum-sealed in a marinade
Vietnamese Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
chilli garlic sauce
carrots finely cut
rice vinegar
fish sauce
fresh chilli chopped
garlic, either white/ palm/brown sugar (your choice) and some water.
Lime juice to balance.
Method
Dissolve sugar in water by heating but not boiling . Mix all ingredients when cooled
Alternate Sauces
Korean Sauce
I’ve been enjoying Korean’s Gochujang which seems to be a milder chilli taste. It is even available in Orange at Coles but you do have to search in the Asian section.
Ingredients for a Korean dipping sauce
Japanese sauce
Mix miso and teriyaki sauce
Best with Schubert and Pinot.
Shortcuts
Asian Flavoured Sauces Made With Jam
Pork ribs with Asian sauces made with Jams
Marmalade Jam
Add slivers of ginger, ground pepper, orange/ mandarin juice, enough hot water to make the jam more liquid, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and some drops of sesame oil. Bring to the boil and reduce and use your palate to ensure that the sweet, sour and salty elements are in balance enough not to skew the wine. When in doubt add more soy.
If you add more orange/mandarin rind make sure you get rid of as much of the pith as you can (the bitterness adversely affects the wines.) Blanch the rind 3 times in water just covering the pith, then bring the water to the boil and discard the boiling water each time.)
Best served with Bloodwood Shiraz
Plum Jam, (or tinned plums and its juice or fresh plums roasted and then add some plum jam.)
Add slivers of ginger, ground pepper, orange juice, enough hot water/ tinned plum juices or chicken/ pork stock to make the jam more liquid, soy sauce, scant rice wine vinegar and some drops of sesame oil. Bring to the boil and reduce till it is a coating consistency and sticky. Use your palate to ensure that the sweet, sour and salty elements are in balance enough not to skew the wine. If it is sweet, add some hoisin and soy sauces.
PS Note:- I use a touch of plum vinegar instead of rice wine vinegar.
Best served with Bloodwood Pinot
Freezing Pork
My freezer generally has 3 pork products available, a pork fillet, 500g pork mince and cooked pork belly.
Pork Fillet
Handy because it takes up little room and defrosts quickly for unexpected guests. Can cook as a stir fry. (*Peanut oil, drops of sesame oil, ginger, garlic, fresh chilli, spring onions, fresh coriander, mushrooms, bok choy, plus other veg, hoi sin and light and dark soy (All four wines work with this especially the Riesling and Pinot.) Cut the pork fillet around to uncurl some minute steaks and serve with apple, mustard or cider sauce. This would be best with the Riesling.
Pork Mince
Makes a comfort dish of pork and beans (see Adam Liaw’s more authentic recipe- https://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/dry-fried-green-beans-pork-and-chinese-olive ) or another that I call my Asian spag bol with hoi sin and noodles. (Another Adam Liaw recipe – he’s everywhere at the moment and that’s a good thing! He (with Poh) follow Elizabeth Chong and Chong Lieu, then Kylie Kwong is demystifying authentic and discrete Asian dishes for everyday meals of hungry Australians. I guess Margaret Fulton was Australia’s multi -cultural equivalent to America’s Julia Child. https://www.goodfood.com.au/recipes/hoisin-mince-and-noodles-20210329-h1uwrc )
I fantasise about making pork dumplings and do if there are extra hands available. Love potstickers with soy and Sambal Oelek or dumplings in light gingered chicken stock soup, see https://kitchen.nine.com.au/recipes/steamed-pork-dumplings-in-chicken-broth/22c05b1e-c311-475d-960f-e90a7518d6a7
In warmer weather, make pork sang choi bau, cooler weather make a meatloaf /terrine of pork mince and chopped bacon (ratio of 1 mince to 0.5 vol bacon) herbs and seasoning, and in colder weather, make your own spring rolls or sausage rolls easily made with bought pastries. Season your sausage roll mince with finely chopped sauteed onions, chopped herbs, Dijon mustard and salt and pepper.) Add pork mince to your beef mince (50/50 ratio) to make our Aussie bastardised version of spag bol.
Pork Belly
I buy a whole pork belly, (get your butcher to score it,) cut into serving portions, dry it thoroughly, oil and salt the skin. Cook the pork slowly at 150 degrees C for 3 hours.
Pour off the fat. Freeze those pork portions. They can easily be defrosted quickly in a microwave. Sometimes I take off the skin, dry fry it in a pan to crisp it and render some more fat. In that fat, sautee the pork that has been cut into cubes and gently crisp on at least two sides. The meat can break up a bit but it does shed even more fat which you can also discard. It’s not as perfect as freshly cooked pork but makes a quick tasty meal. Refer to sauces.
Overcook some of your pork belly in pork fat, add some seasonings. Shred the pork meat apart with two forks and you have pork rillettes which goes really well with Riesling and Schubert, even the Pinot accompanied by some crusty bread.
Hang on a minute, this is where I need to quote H G Nelson “When too much pork is barely enough!”
Re-frying pork belly
Braised Pork Neck Asian Style
Serve with Bloodwood Pinot Noir and/or Shiraz
Ingredients
Chinese Master stock https://www.goodfood.com.au/recipes/master-stock--chinese-20111018-29uz5
soy
ginger
garlic
star anise
rock sugar
chicken stock
spring onions
whole peppercorns
cassia bark
dried mandarin rind (dry your own)
dried Shiitake mushrooms
sesame oil,
use some wine that you are going to drink if you do not have Shaoxing.)
Method
Roast the plums first if fresh (those with yellow interior match slightly better with Pinot, blood plums with the Shiraz)
Roasted plums
Roast Pork Neck European Style
I love prunes, caramelised onions, roast sweet potato (or butternut pumpkin) granny smith apple for some acidity and slivers of fresh ginger, salt and pepper. May need 1 T Dijon mustard rubbed over the pork neck to counterbalance some of the sweetness. Serve with silverbeet or spinach.
See example for cooking method
http://www.grouprecipes.com/129463/rolled-pork-neck-stuffed-with-boozy-prunes.html
Serve with Bloodwood Shiraz
Pulled Pork or Pork Spaghetti
Used in tacos, sandwiches/burgers. American flavours with lots of ketchup, Holbrooks Sauce, loads of brown sugar and brown vinegar can be too strong for our elegant wines
Curry and Pork
I don’t think pork meat works well as a curry (too delicate perhaps) or is it more that stronger curries don’t work as well with our wines? Whatever the answer, the curry market is already cornered.
?Dessert (it’s not really dessert)
Pork Floss
https://www.yumofchina.com/homemade-pork-floss/
First tasted this with friends when Luke Nguyen was in attendance at Red Lantern Restaurant. More of an accompaniment, they served it on rice cakes. Schubert was one of their favourites.