Pork in beer
This weekend, I wondered what to do with a joint of pork. I spent an hour working through my cookbooks, and used Palette de porc a la biere from Anthony Bourdain’s “Les Halles” Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking as a starting point.
Here’s my interpretation, with quantities adjusted for using the wrong joint of meat:
Serves 4-6
- 1.5kg boned pork leg
- salt and pepper
- 4 tbsp/56ml olive oil
- 2 tbsp/28g butter
- 4 small onions, finely sliced
- 4 carrots, chopped
- 6 garlic cloves
- 3 tbsp/42g flour
- 90ml cider vinegar
- 500ml beer (I used cheap Sainsbury’s Belgian lager)
- 500ml chicken stock
- 4 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
Season the joint with salt and pepper.
Heat half of the oil in a heavy pot, then add the butter. When the butter froths, fry the pork on all sides until nicely browned. Remove from the pan.
Discard the blackened butter and add the rest of the oil. Fry the onions, carrot and garlic over a medium heat until soft and brown. Add the flour and stir; cook for two minutes.
Stir in the vinegar and beer, and scrape off all the tasty stuff with a spoon. Boil until the liquid is reduced by half. Add the chicken stock and bring to the boil. Add the meat and any juices.
Simmer covered for two hours, turning the meat over half way through.
Make the crust
Preheat the oven to 450 deg F/230 deg C. Remove the pork from the pot and place in a roasting pan. Spread 2 tbsp of mustard over the meat and press the breadcrumbs into the mustard.
Roast for 15 minutes until the breadcrumbs are crunchy. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for five minutes.
Finish the Sauce
Strain the cooking liquid into another saucepan. Boil to reduce by two-thirds. Stir in the remaining mustard, and adjust the seasoning if necessary (if you used a stock cube, it’s very unlikely you will need to add extra salt.
Serve with Dauphinoise Potatoes and some simple steamed green vegetables (we had Spring Greens).
This is so good – the pork takes up all the flavours of the sauce without losing its own – that I’ll do this again very soon.
