Pork loin with leeks

I'm on a bit of a pork roll. I never used to cook pork. My brother does, in an open fire pit. And it is delicious. But I never do. Not many people do really. And if they do, it is with crackling. Nobody I know cooks it on the stove.

Except myself and the Hazans.

Like chicken, then lamb, then risotto, now that I've discovered it I'm enjoying cooking my through all of the Hazan pork recipes that take my fancy. To recap highlights have been:

- Pork and Vinegar (Essentials);

- Pork with Apples and Plumbs (How to Cook Italian); and

- Pork with Cabbage (Every Night Italian).

The glaring omission from all of this, of course, is Marcella's famous Pork with Milk. I'm trying to psyche myself up to that one.

Anyway, I have loved them all. The apples and plumbs one was an obvious hit - who doesn't like a sweet fruit sauce with pork? The vinegar and bay leaves was a real surprise, with a flavour that we didn't expect, but that was sophisticated and delicious. The cabbage was mopped up to the last drop.

But onto leeks (from How to Cook Italian). The process is like the others. It is a very simple way to cook pork. I was worried I had too many leeks, but it was fine, as it turns out.

I kept cooking for a little longer than was called for, to ensure the leeks turned into a delicious sauce and were no longer recognisable as bits of leek.

And how was it? For me, it was very good, but not quite as delicious as the others. The pork tasted of well pork (which is a good thing) and the leeks were a delicious leeky sauce like an onion sauce but without the sweetness. I'd cook it again for the hell of it if I spotted some leeks.

We certainly got into it.

As a side, I had a productive Hazan Saturday afternoon, also cooking:

- Tuscan Ragu (double batch) (How to Cook Italian) - to freeze;

- Meat Broth for risotto (Marcella Says) - also to freeze; and

- Roast chicken with rosemary and garlic (How to Cook Italian) - in the fridge.

It is a point Marcella makes in an earlier book. If you are cooking for a few hours, why not do a few dishes at once. That makes your life easier down the track.

Pork with Vinegar and Bay Leaves and Tuscan Soup

Another simple Hazan recipe. People speak highly of it. Now that I have discovered pork loin, I am keen to try a few of her pork recipes.

I bought pork this time that didn't have an obnoxious amount of crackling fat on it, although it did have some fat (which I partially chopped off). It is not a cut of meat that butchers usually sell, as such. I think here anyway they make pork chops out of it or pork steaks. I'm not sure what they are called but they are cut up from the loin and sold separately.

Anyway, I asked for it and managed to get it.

There isn't much to do with this one. I browned the meat as requested, feeling faintly guilty at planning a meal of pork cooked in butter when I am trying to decrease in size rather than increase.

A teaspoon of peppercorns were bashed, not with a hammer as suggested, but with a rolling pin. I don't find I roll anything with that pin, just bash.

In they went with the dried bay leaves. I had bought fresh but they disappeared somewhere between the vege shop and home. I really need to buy myself another bay tree.

The vinegar was next. If Marcella Hazan has done one thing, it is to make me appreciate vinegar. Just last night I had a salad dressed with it. My favourite Hazan dish is now braised lamb with vinegar and beans.

The recipe calls for the vinegar to not be boiled away while the sides and bottom of the pan are scraped. I dutifully complied, but my urgent scraping resulted in hot fat and vinegar jumping from the pan and onto my arm. I was more worried about the lost vinegar than the burn, as so I poured a little more in the pan, and put the lid on tightly.

Prior to putting the pork on I had started off a batch of Giuliano Hazan's Tuscan Soup from his Every Night Italian. This soup is a miracle really, as there is no stock or broth to speak of, and it is still delicious. Having said that, if I have broth to burn it is even tastier if you use it instead of water. Unfortunately I did not, but I did sneak in a parmesan cheese rind which Marcella suggests is a good idea. I think it is.

It is a good feeling having pots simmering on the stove, filling the house with comforting cooking smells, and knowing that all the work has been done hours before any guests arrive.

On the question of timing, Marcella is a little vague, suggesting that I cook until the pork is tender. The efforts of others documented on the internet had timeframes from 40 minutes to an hour and a half. I could have asked her but I really didn't want to agitate on something so trivial.

On a whim I took a look at her Classic Italian Cookbook, published before I was born in 1973. This is of course the book that started it all and which was combined with More Classic Italian Cooking in the early 90s to form Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Here Marcella helpfully suggests that the pork be cooked for at least 2 hours. Pleasingly she also says that a minestrone would be a good first course.

The planets aligned for this meal. The Tuscan Soup was absolutely sublime (thanks Giuliano) and the pork was a fabulous followup. The pork tasted of itself but was in a beautiful vinegar and pepper sauce. It was subtle, divine, delectable and delicious.

We really enjoyed it.

This recipe is a keeper.

Thanks Marcella.

Lamb shanks

It's dark, wet and miserable outside. And, strangely for the middle of a Queensland summer, a little cold. Even more strangely, since I have never cooked them before, my thoughts turned to lamb shanks. And soup. Good winter food. Half an hour later I had the ingredients for tuscan soup from Giuliano Hazan's Every Night Italian and his braised lamb shanks from his How to Cook Italian.

I don't think Marcella gives a lamb shank recipe, at least in her earlier books. I recall her saying something about how Italian lamb shanks are too small to create the dish we know as braised lamb shanks.

The usual suspects were at work in the lamb shank recipe: garlic, browning, carrots, herbs, onion and tomato. The only thing that was a surprise was how little tomato is involved. I guess I am more used to much more sauce when I see this dish.... at aussie pubs.

As usual an absolute highlight was cooking off the alcohol in the white wine. I'm not sure if this a loophole to my year off the sauce or just a simple pleasure.

Once the shanks were on I had to think about the soup. I had run out of steam for the full soup production, and time, so I had to look at what else I had bought at the vege shop. I had 2 potatoes and immediately thought of Alice Waters superb potato gratin from her Art of Simple Food.

I peeled and cut the first potato. It was rotten. Luckily, the other was not, and with the aid of garlic, milk and butter I was able to throw together a little gratin and whack it in the oven.

Meanwhile, the shanks were going to plan, except they got a little dry towards the end and I had to splash in some water, as suggested.

I wasn't sure how long the shanks should cook. 2 hours or until tender, was the suggestion. Shanks in a pub (my only reference) are always fall off the bone. My shanks weren't close to that when I took them off, but they were tender.

Everything timed nicely with the gratin, and that and the shanks were served up with some crusty bread.

The sauce was...... delicious. I would expect nothing less from a braised Hazan recipe. The first shank I tried was a little disappointing. The second (yes I tried a second - they were pretty small) had much more meat on it and was much more rewarding.

So in all a success, but dependent on the quality of the shanks, not surprisingly. I thought I had some good ones, but 2 of the 4 were much better than the others. It would not have been great for half of the diners to have a shitty shank.

The gratin complemented it superbly. Do google it.

Pork loin with apples and plums

I didn't plan on making this last night. To be honest, I was thinking about perhaps trying Marcella's braised pork with vinegar, or perhaps some Indian food (yes I'm chancing my hand with some spice occasionally).

But then Giulano posted a link to him cooking a pork loin with apples and apricots which looked damn good and so I had to give it a crack.

This recipe is in his "How to Cook Italian". It actually calls initially for plums rather than apricots, so that's what I bought. Good time of year to cook them, summer, with all the stone fruit out.

I bought my loin of pork. I was concerned about all the fat on it. It just seemed way too much. I peered at Guilano's video and his didn't seem to have nearly as much fat on it. But Marcella says to leave it on in some of her pork recipes. I tried to ask the teacher himself without being too forceful, and kindly and generously, he clarified.

Giuliano Hazan

Giuliano Hazan prepares Pork with Apples & Plums on Daytime

Uploaded to www.youtube.com

Giuliano prepares a great festive pan-roasted pork loin with apples and plums on Daytime.

8 hours ago via YouTube · · Comment

• 3 people like this.
• • 
    

    
    
  • 

    David Downie Giuliano, this will be my new years eve dish. I'll be sure to report back on my blog documenting how it goes.

    8 hours ago ·
  • 

    David Downie Looking at your pork loin it looks as though the fat is trimmed off it.

    4 hours ago ·
  • 

    Giuliano Hazan Not completely, David, though in American markets I suspect more fat may be trimmed off. Hope you enjoy it while bringing the new year in! Best wishes.

    3 hours ago ·
  • 

    David Downie Giuliano, thanks very much for commenting. I was googling pork loin and fat trimming. I will take a little off only then! I am making your superb scallop and breadcrumb pasta for our first course. Happy New Year to you and your family. david

    3 hours ago ·

So I took to the fat with my knife. As it turns out, there was actually more fat than meat in the loin I managed to buy. It didn't look too bad after I found the meat. To think, if this were roasted all that fat would have gone down the throat. It made me sick thinking about it.

I gave Basil the kitten a chance to play with it for a few minutes before binning it.

The next steps were to brown the meat, soften the onion, and cut the fruit.

The really fun bit was pouring in some red wine and boiling off the alcohol. In the name of all that is holy, this was the most amazing smell. More so for me because I am off the grog for 12 months and am over 6 months in.

So I couldn't get my head out of the pot as it wafted into my nostrils.

The meat joined the fruit and onion and, still on a high from the alcohol, I declared that everything that was good and right in the world was in that pot.

The spoon was sampled and there were some sour notes. From the fruit perhaps? I hoped it wasn't from the wine, as I wasn't able to taste it before it went in.

Within 40 minutes any sour notes had disappeared, and the official taster declared that the sauce activated all the pleasure sensors at the back of her mouth.

When the meat was cooked it was finely sliced and put back into the sauce. It was greeted with many oos and aaars at the table, and pronounced genius by all.

This recipe is a keeper. The pork wasn't dry and tasted of itself, and the sauce was sweet and delicious. I will be making this one again!

Lamb chops with garlic, rosemary and white wine

I'm fond of lamb chops. They are quick, easy and tasty. Australia has good lamb chops, I think, and you don't need to do much to them. I normally just cook them with salt, pepper and olive oil. You can let them rest and then put some more oil in the juices and serve with a slice of lemon if you want to be fancy.

Having said that I adore the Italian combination of garlic, rosemary and white wine. I have learnt to cook chicken with it. I can see you can cook veal with it. And this is the quick version for lamb chops from Marcella's Italian Kitchen.

It went well. I used bread to mop up the juices, which I never tire of.

I'll be making this again.

Lamb with green beans and vinegar

I have made this dish before, a few times. I've never nailed it, although it has been delicious every time. Some times I have not had all shoulder, or it wasn't on the bone. Some times it has been too oily, or fatty, or I didn't have enough oil to brown the lamb, or the beans were not cooked enough.

Tonight it all came together.

First I got lamb still on the bone. As Marcella said to me on 22 June 2010:

"David, why all this anguish? I meant exactly I wrote, 3 pounds of lamb shoulder with its bones in, cut into pieces. Certainly we make stews with bones in, the meat attached to a bone has always been known to be the tastiest. Food is meant to be worked with and savored, not sipped through a straw. In reading your blog, I deduce that you are not browning the meat in hot enough oil. If you were, you wouldn't have to keep on replacing the oil. Bear in mind that I have cooked all of those dishes myself exactly as they are described. On your first try, follow the recipe literally without improvisations then make any changes you choose on subsequent efforts. I believe moreover, that you ought to be cooking a dish either from my directions or Giuliano's, not from a combination of both. I have no idea what "working a cracker" might mean. Is that Aussie talk? "

I got the butcher to cut it up. It wasn't in 2 inch chunks, but that didn't matter in the slightest. And I did follow the instructions to the letter. I measured the oil, which I normally wouldn't do, I even measured the onion (normally I take 1 onion to be about 1 cup). I browned the large chunks of meat well, seasoned it well, measured the vinegar out and didn't touch it for an hour and a half.

When I had a peak then the meat was tender but there was a bit too much liquid. I let it simmer off a bit, but didn't want it all to go as it is so precious.

It all worked. The meat was tender. The vinegar had transformed into a delicious sauce. The beans were cooked but still had some bite.

We used bread to mop up the juices and scraps of meat and beans. Marrow was sucked from the bone.

This is a stew Marcella says she is fond of in More Classic Italian Cooking published in 1978. Well, I am very fond of it now, some 32 years later. And so are my guests.

Split chicken with herbs and white wine

This dish is from Marcella's Italian Kitchen, which is perhaps the least well known of her books, as far as I can tell from the internet. It seems to hold a special place in Marcella's heart though, as you get the feeling that she feels it never got the recognition it deserved, and contains some of her favourite recipes. She certainly seems happy in it, and free perhaps of some of the constraints she may have felt documenting the classic Italian in her first two books.

I was going to cook the chicken with onions from this book, but to be honest I got lazy and noticed that I had everything for the split chicken. The most fun part was chopping the chicken in half and then bashing the crap out of it with the chicken pan to flatten it.

I was then able to brown the chicken and let its skin go really crispy.

The recipe was a little different to other Marcella chicken recipes. There were unusual (for Marcella) ingredients, like cloves, and there were also quite a few herbs, which Marcella usually cautions us against. Other things that were different were that the garlic was not browned at all, the wine was not reduced at the start, and the heat was set to medium instead of low.

As usual for this sort of thing the sauce got really really tasty. The recipe called for the clear fat to be poured down the sink and I did that wistfully as I love mopping it up. But I did it. The final stage is to bake it in the oven for 10 minutes to get a parmesan cheese crust.

The result was a solid chicken, but I love other Marcella fricasseed chickens so much that when the sauce almost disappears I am not as happy. To me it was more like a baked chicken that hinted of a fricasseed chicken with sauce. The cheese didn't really do much for me.

So I don't think I'll be making this one again. My favourite Hazan chickens are: chicken with red cabbage (Essentials), and chicken with rosemary, white wine, tomatoes (Cucina). I'm also fond of baking the chicken with rosemary and garlic, which is also in Essentials but I use the recipe from Giulian Hazan's How to Cook Italian (which is very similar).

Other recipes I have tried but prefer less are two lemons (Essentials), rosemary and white wine (Essentials) and Bay Leaves (Cuscina).

Next time I'll try the chicken with smothered onions (and mash).

Veal slices topped with prosciutto and sage

I have written about this dish before, as I have the minestrone, but I thought I would also say a few extra words about this one too.

It is from Giuliano Hazan's How to Cook Italian. A few veal slices. Prosciutto. Sage. Butter. White wine. 10 minutes of your time.

Such a delicious course.

Both of us made happy noises as we polished off our veal slices. A little indulgent with the butter and prosciutto, but only small servings, and they only needed to be after our generous minestrone soup for our first course.

I couldn't be happier with our meal tonight. It is not that difficult to eat like a king if you make the effort.

I'll be cutting up some fruit later on in the evening just to finish things off.

Mid week feast

I left work early today to see a doc about a cough. While waiting for my prescription I picked up a kilo of chopped lamb pieces as well as some extra rosemary and parsley. Home a little early I was able to whip up a mid-week feast, which pleased my dining companion no end when she arrived home at 7.

The feast was:

- Bruschetta with basil and tomato;

- Giuliano Hazan's Lamb Stew with Olives and Parsley from his How to Cook Italian: I know I keep cooking this dish but that's because it is so good and so easy. I cook it with red wine as I never seem to have white around.

- Marcella's Potato Salad from Marcella's Italian Kitchen, with olives and parsley (WARNING: olive overload but come to think of it they aren't even in the recipe);

- Boiled Broccoli with Salt, Olive Oil and Pepper (Neil Perry);

- Baked eggplant slices (Alice Waters)

Well I can tell you I am as full as a fart now. The stew was delicious; the potato salad was a little full on (simpler would have been better); the eggplant was a touch underdone and the slices could have been bigger.

The broccoli was the star. So creamy and delicious.

One thing I noticed was that I did seem to be suffering from salt overdose by the end of it. Everything had a lot of salt and olive oil on it. Brings out flavour, says Marcella, and makes food taste of itself. No need to hide behind trickery like the Thais for example.

I get that, and can see how it all works, but here there was just a bit too much salt in all my dishes. I'm not sure what could have broken that up. Dump the potato salad perhaps, or had a real salad instead of a vege dish.

Anyway, all good. I'm stuffed as I said, mainly on veges. Can't complain about that. And lots left over for tucker during the week.

Smothered Onion, Tuscan tbone, Roast chicken

I've cooked these dishes before but I thought I'd mention them again as I had them for dinner.

Hunger dictated I cooked the steak first, with the cracked pepper, salt, garlic rub and olive oil. Marcella would not be pleased to hear the olive oil went on before the steak was cooked but I had already put oil on my new fancy steak pan.

Due to popular demand I also cooked the Smothered Onion pasta. The first time I cooked this is was possibly the best thing I've even eaten, but I was a bit ho-hum about it the second.

This was the third.

All went well. The wine I'm using isn't the best for cooking. It has a sharp tang.

I didn't go mad for it, although it was well received. I think I want to cook it a fourth time with better wine and reserve judgement on whether or not I want it to be something I cook regularly until then.

I also cooked Chicken with Rosemary and Garlic from Giuliano Hazan's How to Cook Italian. We'll eat that tomorrow or the next day.

Rack of Lamb Encrusted with Parmesan Cheese

I've had this before and it wasn't that great.

I think the difference this time was that I made my own breadcrumbs (not hard) and seasoned (ie salted) it properly prior to putting it in the oven.

It was fabulous, and so simple. I served it with a salad (tomatoes and lettuce + vinaigrette) and Alice Water's superb potato gratin. Certainly something you could proudly serve to anyone.

This is from Every Night Italian.

Fricasseed Chicken Abruzzi Style with Rosemary, White Wine, Cherry Tomatoes, and Olives

This is my favourite Hazan dish so far. In fact I think it's my favourite dish that I can cook.

I've enjoyed it for a couple of years. It is so simple, and so easy, and yet so delicious when done right. You need to make sure you have the right pan for these fricasseed dishes (heavy), and the best free range chicken, olives, rosemary and garlic you can find.

After a few goes you won't need to look at the recipe at all.

I particularly love mopping up the juices (goodness) with some crusty bread, and having a bite of cherry tomato, olive and chicken all at once.

When serving for guests I make this a second course which follows a pasta and precedes fruit.

It's from Marcella Cucina.

Veal slices topped with prosciutto and sage

I snuck ahead a generation to Giuliano Hazan in How to Cook Italian. I've never cooked with butter and sage before, and like the idea of scaloppine.

Anyway, this little piggy came together like a dream. It only took about 15 minutes. I didn't bother whacking the meat first, as it already seemed pretty thin.

I'll be cooking this one again for sure.

Pot Roast Braised with Butternut Squash (Pumpkin)

This is a recipe from Every Night Italian. I've wanted to make it a while.

Australians don't have the pot-roast tradition of the Americans, French and Italian. We roast our beef like the English. And it does taste good.

Nonetheless I wanted to try this one out. I do like Butternut Pumpkin. And love a beef stew, properly cooked.

Unfortunately this recipe did not fly for me. My chuck beef was a little stringy, and the pumpkin tasted like, well, beef.

I won't be cooking it again. I'm not sure if I failed in the execution or if this is what it is supposed to taste like.

I'll give the Alice Waters pot roast a try. Or indeed, Marcella's.