Pork

As the government announces we should be eating less red meat, I have been hitting the pork section of Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking.  I have had my second attempt at a terrine, this time a terrine de pork et de gibier (pork and game pate).  This was made from minced pork and veal, pheasant, pork fat, white wine and a seasoning including juniper berries and garlic.  I crushed the seasonings to a paste in a pestle and mortar and added this to the rest of the ingredients.  This was then cooked in loaf tins in a bain marie.  The result was impressive but not a resounding success.  It was a little under seasoned but a hard thing to master unless you like eating raw meat and the chef of the family advised me it was overcooked.  This just gives me room for improvement on the next recipe, one more terrine and two gallantines to go.

I followed this up with some great pork chops cooked with shallots and cider, accompanied by Horsley grown jerusalem artichokes with tomatoes.

We have also used up the last of the Christmas ham in some of Elizabeth’s recipes, she often adds cooked ham as the pork addition in casseroles, so Wild Duck with peppers and ham.  I also cooked her ham in cream and cheese sauce, for which mysteriously you finish off the sauce in a bain marie -I’m not convinced what benefit this brings.

For Little Chef Friday the children got homemade Frankfurters from their Uncle’s Butchery in Chipping Sodbury.  Not the potent pink colour of the artificial ones, but deep in flavour.  We had a proud parenting moment as they made their own rolls for them.  

As you can see we are not abiding to the 70 gram daily recommendation of meat.  What I do think though is if you buy good quality meat, with providence, it’s got to be better.  If you can’t afford good meat then just buy less:  enjoy one really good 70g steak rather than a 250g(8oz) one.