Honey roast pork

Fit for a king!
I found this recipe here, but I adjusted it a little bit.

Time of preparation: 2 hours
serves 6-8

1kg pork belly (or any other cut that roasts and crackles|)

I used ginger chopped like match sticks (as much as you like)
cloves (a bunch, about a handful)
1 tbsp cracked coriander seeds
340g runny honey
1 stock cube
4 medium brown onions
1 bunch of sage
4 bay leaves
Olive oil
Rock Salt
200ml cold water

Preparation

Stab the pork with a sharp long knife and place cloves and the match stick like ginger in the meat. Rub a little olive oil into the pork and season with salt. Place the pork on to a wire tray and then place into the roasting dish. Roast in the oven for approximately 2hrs on the bottom shelf at 160C.

Meanwhile, make the honey glaze by adding the rest of the water, honey, coriander seeds, and 1 stock cube to a saucepan and simmer until reduced by a third. The mixture will thicken and become syrupy

Cut the root off of the onions and cut in half (take the outer skins off if preferred). Add a little sunflower oil to a frying pan, heat then place the onions in the pan flat side down. Add the bay leaves, sage and leave for a few minutes until they start to brown and caramelize. Then place the pan in the oven for 25 minutes until onions are golden brown.

To serve, using a pastry brush glaze the pork with the honey reduction. Then slice lengthwise into (about 1in wide) and arrange onto a large plate. Place the roasted onions around the meat and garnish with the roasted sage leaves.

In the recipe, the chef makes his own gravy, but since I prefer to use rock salt the juices that run from the meat are too salty and I prefer to use regular gravy that I buy at the supermarket.

It was absolutely delicious for a New Year's dish!

Pork with chestnuts

If you speak portuguese, I found this recipe here.

In Portugal, the 11th of November is S. Martinho day (Saint Martin's). The legend tells us that a roman knight was on patrol when he saw an old beggar, hungry and cold for he was almost naked. It was a rainny and cold day and the old man was soaking wet.

The knight, called Martinho (Martin) was kind and liked to help the poor. When he saw that beggar, he pitied him and cut his own thick cape in half, with his sword and giving one to the old man, leaving him. After his kind act, the rain stopped and a beautiful sunny day replaced it.

In Portugal they say that around Sao Martinhos day there is a veranico ("small summer) when autumn is not as harsh and the weather gets warmer. Around this time of the year they also celebrate the Magusto.

The Magusto is a popular party that changes from region to region. Generally people gather around a bonfire where they roast chestnuts and drink new wine. People paint each other with the ashes and sing old traditional songs. Apparently some people consider the Magusto as the remains of an old pagan sacrifice to the dead (just like other popular traditions happening the around the same time all over Europe), since it was tradition to prepare some chestnuts to the family's deads and serve them at midnight (and no one would eat them).

All that is an introduction to one of the best recipes to try this time of year (this and the punpkin risotto!)


Pork (shoulder, legs, whatever)

Chestnuts
Salt and pepper
Red/gree pepper, mashed together
white wine
chopped bacon or loddon
piri-piri
garlic
laurel
onion
olive oil
Start by seasoning the pork (preferably on the previous day) with a cream made of salt, garlic, mashed pepper, pepper and piri-piri.
Cut the meat in cubes (If its not already in steaks, then its ok) and put the wine to make kind of a broth.
Cover  with a tin foil and roast/cook it in a hot (180-200'C) oven).

Meanwhile prepare the chestnuts: Boil water in a pan and add the chestnuts. Let them boil for 5 min, remove and peel them.

On a pan, heat up olive oil and the bacon cubes/loddon. Fry 1 onion chopped finnely, garlic and laurel and add the peeled chestnuts, Add sal and pepper, put the lid on  and let it cook in low heat (if necesary add a bit of water or wine).

When the meat is almost done (30-40 min), depending on the oven and the meat, add the chestnuts to it and let it all golden a bit for 10 min (withouth the tin foil).

Serve it hot with migas de broa (soon I'll post the recipe), cowpea and grelos or an apple mash.

Feijoada

Feijoada is THE brazilian dish. Its historic roots come from slavery: In a sugar cane/coffee or any other plantation farm, the aristocrats lived in the Manor house and the slaves in a house called senzalas.
If you think slavery in north america was bad, it wasn't nearly as bad as what happened in Brazil. The slaves would sleep in big stable, for lack of a better explanation, men, women and children all together, with just a straw roof and gates, to lock them all there.
After the slaves slaugthered pigs for the manor house, they could have the second class remains (belly, feet, ears). Eventually feijoada became a national dish and it is served mostly on wednesdays or saturdays for lunch. Since it's a pork/beans stew, it is a heavy dish and feijoada season coincides with winter (although it's found all year around in the country).

Complete feijoada (serves 12)

2 kgs of black beans (also known as black turtle beans)
1 1/2 kg of eye of rump - Here's a link to the brazilian bovine cuts. Eye of rump (or alcatra in portuguese) is number 7.
1 kg of musculo (numbers 23 and 12), which is the meat from the legs
200g of streaky bacon, smoked
250 of streaky bacon
300g of paio, a traditional dry cured sausage, found in international food stores
300g of smoked pork loin
500g of sausage
2 tails of salted pork
400g of smoked pork ribs
500g of charqui (dry meat)
1 ear of salt pork
1 leaf of laurel (or bay leaf)
4 cloves of garlic
1 big onion, chopped
2 tspoons of pepper

One day before preparing the feijoada, soak the beans in enough water to cover them. Wash the salted meat in tap water and put them in a bowl, soaked in water. On the day of preparation wash the meat again, put them in a deep pan, cover them with water and let it boil. Drain it.
In another big pan, add the beans with the soaking water and add all the meat (salted and otherwise). Cook it until the beans are soft.

In another pan, heat up the oil and add the onion, garlic, pepper and laurel. Let it golden slowly. Add 2 laddles of beens (without the broth) and mash it. Add a laddle of broth and mix it until you achieve a cream/pasta. Add the left over beans and cook it until the beans are soft and the broth thickens. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper, if necessary. If the beans water reduces too much, you can add a bit more.

Serve it with white rice, farofa, couve a mineira or garlicky green collard and, of course, caipirinhas. Also, prepare a spice sauce to go with it, so your guests can spice up at will.

A trick is to slice oranges and put them in a table, so for every serving (with all the companions of this dish) you should have 2 slices of orange on your plate.