STICKY BOURBON BBQ CHOPS

This recipe comes courtesy of the Australian Pork website www.pork.com.au


Ingredients:
4 pork forequarter chops
Salt and pepper

Sauce: 
1 cup barbeque sauce
1 cup brown sugar
2 tblsp tomato paste
½ cup water
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced finely
100ml bourbon whiskey

Cooking Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 170°C.
2. Cut the pork forequarter chops in half and season with salt and pepper.
3. Combine the barbeque sauce, brown sugar, tomato paste, water and ginger in a saucepan and stir over a medium heat until the liquid boils. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, before removing from the heat and cooling.
4. Barbeque or fry pork chops on a griddle pan for 4 minutes each side then place the chops into a greased baking dish.
5. Stir the bourbon into the prepared sauce and pour half the sauce over the pork chops. Bake the pork chops in a pre-heated oven at 170°C for 25 - 30 minutes turning and basting frequently.
6. Serve hot with extra sauce on the side.

Note: delicious served with potato salad and coleslaw.

FRESH THYME & VERJUICE ROAST CHICKEN WITH DUCK FAT POTATOES

Who doesn't love a good ol' roast chook? It's comfort food at its best. The beauty of it is that really, it's like a blank canvas. Chicken loves being cooked with a multitude of different flavours so you can use almost any fresh herb to change it up a little and make it different each time if you want to.

This will be the first of many roast chook recipes we'll post because there are so many different ways to do it. This method is fairly fool proof and of course the exact cooking times will also differ depending on the exact size of your bird and also your oven.

How will you know if it's cooked? My mum taught me to pierce the skin down near the thigh joint and if the juices run clear, then it's cooked. Be sure to catch all of the juices though.

Another fool proof way is to invest in a thermometer. The $10-$20 is a clever investment in my opinion. It takes all of the guess work out and you'll never ruin a fantastice piece of meat again. This way you won't lose any of the juices either. Measure the temperature of the thigh, close to the bone. There are differing opinions on this (just google and you'll see what I mean) but you want it to be at around 72-75 degrees according to health regulations. Maggie Beer, bless her, likes her chook cooked to no more than 68 degrees. Heston Blumenthal reckons 60 degrees is enough! See what I mean... It's confusing.

INGREDIENTS

1 x Dakota Vale Farm free range chook* (approx 1.6-2kg)
verjuice
duck fat
olive oil
fresh thyme
4 large potatoes
bunch of asparagus
8 Swiss Brown mushrooms

For the gravy
 20ml dry white wine
 250ml chicken stock
 1 tsp Dijon mustard (optional)
 1 sprig of thyme

Method:

Remove chicken from fridge 30 mins before cooking. Preheat oven to 220 degrees. 
Peel, cut into required size and par boil potatoes (half cook). Drain and leave to dry. 

Place chicken in a roasting pan place a few sprigs of thyme into the cavity and then drizzle a little olive oil & verjuice, salt & pepper in there as well. Place a few sprigs of thyme between the leg & wing bones. Rub the outside of chicken with olive oil then drizzle verjuice all over the bird & season with salt & pepper.  Place chicken in the oven and reduce heat to 180 degrees. Cook for 1 hour & 20 mins. Remove from oven, cover loosely with foil and let rest for 15 mins before serving.

The potatoes require approx 1 hour cooking time. Heat 2 tbsp duck fat in a roasting tray. Coat potatoes in heated duck fat, season liberally with salt & pepper and roast until golden & crunchy, turning once or twice during cooking.

Grill asparagus on a medium heat with olive oil & a dash of verjuice. Sautée mushrooms in olive oil with some fresh thyme, salt & pepper.

If making the gravy...
Remove chicken from roasting pan to rest. Place pan on a medium-high heat. Add the white wine and stir, gently scraping the crunchy bits off the bottom of the pan (this is called deglazing). Add the chicken stock & some chopped thyme leaves and cook until liquid reduces to a sauce. Before serving, stir in the mustard if you're using it and warm through. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

ROAST PORK LOIN WITH APPLE GRAVY

Serves 4-6

 

Leave pork uncovered in the fridge overnight or a
few hours prior to cooking for the best crackling results.
 

INGREDIENTS

Pork

1.5kg rolled pork loin (skin on)

2 apples (cored, cut into large chunks lengthways)

2 carrots (quartered, cut lengthways)

10 peeled cloves of garlic

1 large brown onion (cut into large chunks)

tsp fennel seeds (toasted & lightly crushed)

oil

2 tbs butter

gravox (optional)

Mashed potato

4-6 large potatoes

1 cup of milk

tbs butter

 

Lemon & Parsley  Green Beans

500 green beans (topped and tailed)

juice of 1 lemon

EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

chopped flat leaf parsley

METHOD

Preheat oven to 220 degrees.

 

Remove pork from the fridge 30 minutes prior to cooking. Rub butter, fennel seeds and plenty of salt into the pork skin.

In a roasting pan, make a bed of  apple, carrot and onion for the pork loin. Place pork on top, add half a cup of water and a glug of oil to the pan. Cook for 20 minutes and then drop temperature to 180 degrees.

Check crackling after an hour. If not crispy enough, increase temperature again to 220 degrees and cook for a further 20 minutes otherwise leave temp at 180 degrees for the final 20 mins.

Remove pork from the pan and cover loosely with alfoil to rest while you make the gravy. Place the roasting pan on a low heat. Drain off some of the excess fat firstly if you wish. Remove carrots & onion, leaving the apple pieces and garlic in the pan. Now just make the gravy as you normally would using gravox.

While pork is cooking, boil potatoes until tender. Drain water and mash with milk, butter, salt & pepper in the saucepan over a low heat so it doesn’t go cold. Steam or blanche beans. Serve warm dressed with the EVOO, lemon juice & parsley just before serving. If you dress with the lemon juice too early, the beans will turn brown on the cut ends.

 

Slice the pork and serve with the mash, beans, carrots, onion & gravy.