February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day - and what better way to celebrate than to prepare for making my home made bacon.  This past weekend we picked up 4 pork bellies (2 per pig) from our local farmer which I mentioned last post - Rock n Horse - I am excited because the 2 piggies came from a cross of Landrace and Duroc - two breeds that are said to be  exceptionally tasty for bacon and meat.  I normally dislike pork chops because I grew up where our mothers were worried about trichinosis in pork so the pork was cooked hockey puck solid - and I never learned how to cook it otherwise.  But the farmer's wife said try their pork chops and we did last night - unbelievable - tender, and so tasty!

I took a cast iron pan and put it in the oven at 450 degrees F - I put a bit of crushed rock sea salt and fresh coarse ground pepper on both sides of the chops  - a couple of pinches each side - as the oven heated up I let the pork sit there with the salt/pepper mixture.  Once the oven beeped I put the chops in the pan and into the  oven for 3 minutes.  When 3 minutes was up I flipped the chops and put them back in the oven  - now these chops were a good inch or more thick.  Why the cast iron?  Well it sears on the bottom and the 450 degree oven also  helps to cook the pork faster - this is how my husband and I learned to make pizzas in under 5 minutes - try it as it really works and for some of us on the verge of anemia it helps to get the extra iron. 

I could do it on the stovetop but I prefer the overall heat in the oven - I left it for another 4-5 minutes to make sure the pork was not pink inside - overall about 10-12 minutes. Took it out - let it rest in the pan for about 3-4 minutes and then served  it - delicious. 

I forgot to mention - we got 4 chops - two went in the oven in the cast iron pot and the other two I diced and made my garlic/pepper sauce for them - all of my family loves garlic and pepper - its so simple -for two diced chops take 3 minced/crushed garlic cloves, then mix 1 tsp white pepper, 1 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp sea salt, - you also need 1 tbsp soy sauce and either 1 tbsp oyster sauce if you want it more  like chinese or 1 tbsp fish sauce if you want  more like thai. I use peanut oil but you can use any vegetable oil except olive oil - olive oil can flare at high temperatures

Stirfry the garlic until golden but  not crisp, add the pork and sprinkle the dry mixture and stir fry at high temperature so the diced pork gets a bit crispy, flip and flip - and for me diced means it is bite size for me - probably 1 inch  by 1 inch.  OK once the pork gets a bit crispy and I mean just a bit add the soy sauce, stir fry for another 2-3  minutes, add the oyster sauce or the fish sauce, stir fry some more for another 1-2 minutes - and you have delightful peppery garlicky pork. Make sure its not pink inside - every stove top differs a bit so cook until its stops being pink inside. Again delicious - family could not decide which they liked better - the oven cast iron fried pork or the stir fried pork. 

So now that we had this wonderful pork I can't wait to try the bacon that came from the same pig.  I bought a 5 lbs pork belly from the butcher - regular commercial pork - its my 'base' to test against this new found treasure of heritage naturally stress free raised pork.  We saw the piggies about 3 weeks ago - big and happy and well fed.  Tomorrow is wednesday and I will start to defrost the bellies (they were frozen when we got them).  I will be making two recipes - maple syrup for my north shore quebecer husband and simple bacon for this ol prairie chicken.  It takes up to 7 days to brine the pork belly - my friends and co workers think its lots of work - eckh - no - it sits in a cold garage or a fridge for 7 days - all you have to do is take 20 seconds every second day and flip it - but more about that later.  And making it in winter is perfect because up here in NE Ontario the temperature of the garage is like a fridge (we have had a pretty nice winter with the lowest being -17 celsius). 

Ooops almost forgot - I also got the jowls from the pigs but I'll write tomorrow about that and I also still have to write about confiting pork.  Oh this bloggin is fun...

P.s. I tried to fix my email problem  - I think I got it figured out - and a family friend said he would help me wih the video aspect once I wanted to get that started.

so this little piggie went to the market... this little piggie stayed home....