Pork Cobbler

image courtesy of gemini-dragon.com

For me cobbler dishes are the epitomy of winter food - the provide a very hearty meal experience, whilst also giving a comfort element. In particular this recipe provides maximum flavour through marinade and slow cooking, to give comforting texture and fully developed tones to leave you feeling comforted and fulfilled.

Provided specially for a Michael a good friend of mine, who will adore this recipe again and again.

Ingredients (serves 5)

For the marinade

4 Teaspoon of Crushed Black Peppercorns
1 Teaspoon of Sea Salt
1 Teaspoon of dried Oregano
1 Teaspoon of dried thyme
7 Cloves of garlic halved
5 Tablespoon of soft brown sugar
2 Table spoon of olive oil
1.5 table spoon of white wine vinegar

Combine dry ingredients in a blender. Add the oil and vinegar gradually, once the other ingredients are combined

1k Diced Pork
100g of pitted olives
10 Sage leaves
15 prunes pitted
75g of unsalted butter
3 Large onions finely chopped
3 Large carrots diced
300ml of stout or guiness
450ml of chicken stock
200ml of double cream
150g of dried apricots soaked

For the Cobbler crust

200g self-raising flour
85g shredded suet
50g butter
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
beaten egg , to glaze

The doing bit

Coat the pork in the marinade and leave overnight

Remove the meat from the marinade and dry

Sauté off the onions, once coloured remove from the pan, then seal off the meat

Place the onions and meat in a large oven tray together with the stock, stout, carrots, prunes, sage and olives.

Braise for two hours

In the meantime prepare the cobbler crust:

sift the flour and season. Combine the suet, butter and parsley and lightly mix together. Make a well in the middle of the mix, then add the lemon zest and juice and gently bring together to make a soft dough. If it is too dry, add a little cold water or milk, but don't knead the dough or it will become tough.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1/4in thickness. cut the dough into pieces the size of your dishes and set to one side,

Remove meat and most of the vegetables, blend the juices and strain add cream to the juices

Reduce the liquor by a third check the seasoning, glaze with butter

Combine with the meat and vegetables to this add the apricots  

Divide the mix into 5 pie dishes (or 4 if more appropriate). Top the dishes with the cobbler dough and brush with egg and milk mix. Return to oven at 180C until tops are golden brown and pork mix is piping hot.

Serve.

Pork Wellington with Redcurrant & Cranberry Sauce

The wellington is a very British dish, as its namesake suggests. A favourite of Sir Winston Churchill amongst others, this dish goes beyond the quaintness of "hearty" and borders of luxurious.

This recipe in particular takes the focus away from beef, and utilises pork instead. I've taken the focus away from expensive ingredients here, and am quietly confident you can feed two people here for less than £10 (shopping around may however be required).

Service thoughts: it goes with pretty much anything, vegetable wise. You can use any of the classic potato dishes also, as they each give a different focus and ideal to the dish when presented. Whether its the glorious fondant potato, dauphinoise, pommes dauphine, croquettes or even champ potato, you're going to enjoy this dish. I'll leave the accompaniment to you.

From a seasonal perspective I suppose its perfectly suited to winter, with the extra filling nature of wellington, the sweetness of "winter" fruits such as redcurrants and cranberries, and the earthy flavours of the pate and mushrooms utilised.

To create this mammoth dish you will need (serves 2)

Puff pastry (when bought from a shop you generally get what you pay for, but if ur on a budget any will do)
Chicken liver pate (you can get this quite cheaply)
1 pork fillet (if you are on a budget you can get the side of a loin by haggling a bit with the butcher)
About 10 chestnut or similar earthy flavour mushrooms. If a bunch of enoki are available, go for them.
2 shallots or 1 small red onion
Chopped fresh rosemary, sage and thyme. Its alot cheaper if you have them growing.
4 pancakes (savoury) (roughly 7in in diameter).. These are I suppose optional but they help the dish greatly. Its up to you.
25g butter for glazing.
1 beaten egg for glaze.
Salt & Pepper for seasoning.

Preparation:

Cut the pork fillet in half and remove any membranes and bits clinging to it. Discard any bitsor put to one side for stock use.

Take your puff pastry and roll out on a cool surface until about 1/2 cm thick. Divide into two equal pieces (these will wrap the fillet etc).

Spread pate on the pastry leaving about 3/4 in breathing gap on all edges.

Finely chop the onion and mushrooms into about 1/2 cm dice. Saute in a pan until soft, then fold in a small amount of butter and the chopped herbs and turn the heat down. When the onion and mushrooms have absorbed the butter take off the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Layer 1 pancakes on the area covered by the pate, then add the mushroom and onion mix in the same manner as the pastry. Add the last pancake on top of this.

Season with salt and pepper, then sear the pork fillet in a very hot pan until colour shown on all sides. We dont want to cook it fully, just enough for the latent heat to start work, and give a bit of caramelised flavour to the meat.

Allow the meat to rest for a minute or so then wrap the pastry / pancake affair around the meat into what appears to be a sausage roll. Seal the wrapped end with the eggand makes sure you do the same for the ends. One thing we dont want is leakage.

Glaze the ready to oven wellington with butter and the remaining egg. Place on greaseproofed oven tray and put in preheated oven (about 180C) until golden brown .

Devour, mercilessly.

For the sauce:

Handful of fresh cranberries
Tbsp redcurrant jelly
Small glass of red wine or port
tsp balsamic vinegar (white preferred)
1/2 cup of chicken stock.

Preparation:

Add the redcurrant jelly to a pan and allow to melt into a syrup. Add the cranberries and turn the heat down to a simmer. Once the cranberries have begun to soften, add the vinegar. Allow to cook for about a minute then add the wine. Reduce the liquor by half then add the stock. Reduce by half again and the sauce is ready.
Don't worry about the straining, the fruit here is a real feature.