25 February 2016

These recipes are a testament to the versatility of apples and potatoes. When this month started I’m not sure I would have used adjectives like “decadent” or “ultimately perfect” to describe potatoes but between gnocchi and the recipe for crunchy oven-roasted potatoes that follows, we are pushing the limit of potato nirvana. Apples, no longer relegated to the confines of the dessert menu or as just a healthy afternoon snack, find their way into the belly of a delicious main dish.

This is good food for wintertime, and best served to guests with hearty appetites:

Poitrine de porc farcie aux fruits (Stuffed Pork belly)

Crunchy oven-roasted potatoes

Bonus! Easiest Applesauce of all time

Poitrine de porc farcie aux fruits (Stuffed Pork belly)

Disclaimer : This is not a recipe for the queasy and definitely not for vegetarians. Not thrilled by the idea of shoving your hand into the middle of a chunk of pork belly? Serve boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead.

To start, hats off to the French! I mean you have to come up with this stuff. This is poitrine, the part of the pig that is used for making bacon, stuffed to bursting with apples and prunes, roasted with honey and then served with a Calvados (apple brandy)-cream reduction. As you can imagine this is no lean cut of meat. (At this point all the American readers are scrolling down to the next recipe…) But stick with me because it is delicious.

I made this recipe on a random Tuesday evening. As it may well have been the pinnacle of my cooking career I do suggest that you save your poitrine for a special occasion. Though just to note, what we ate reheated three days later tasted twice as good so don’t hesitate to make leftovers.

The recipe comes from the French cookbook Toute la cuisine au fil des saisons. It is by far our very favorite French cookbook mostly because the recipes are always tasty and organized seasonally. While we do occasionally stray from winter into spring or back into fall, it’s generally quite satisfying to cook with ingredients that are in season. The cookbook also recommends accompanying wines. Quite useful for aspiring oenologists.

Pork belly with its rind, approx. 2-½ pounds (1.2 kg)

Apples, 3 (Granny Smith are recommended but I used what we have in stock.)

Sour cream, 2/3 cup (150 ml)

Prunes, pitted, 7 oz. (200 g), cut into small pieces

Lemon, juice of 1

Honey, 3 Tbsp.

Calvados, 3 Tbsp. (Calvados is an apple brandy from Normandy. According to the Gourmet Sleuth you can replace it with Armagnac, Applejack or unsweetened apple juice. I can’t guarantee your pork will be quite as content but in the absence of Calvados, it’s worth a try.)

Rosemary

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Peel, core and finely chop the apple. Mix with the lemon juice. Add in the cut-up prunes and the rosemary.

With a sharp knife, remove the tough outer skin of the pork belly, leaving the layer of fat intact. Resist all temptation to trim the fat off. This is the good stuff!
Now cut a large pocket into the thick of the pork belly. Be generous because now you need to stuff your 3 apples and your 20-odd prunes into this pocket.
Sew the opening tightly shut. (I had gotten this far without reading the recipe thoroughly ahead of time. Right…“sew the opening shut”. Apparently a pork belly-stitching needle and thread is standard kitchen equipment here in France. Perplexed, but not deterred, I created a suture of toothpicks inserted in x-formation. Julia Childs would have scoffed but it seemed to do the job and since, I’m going to go way out on a limb and assume you also don’t have such a needle in your kitchen drawer, I recommend you do the same.)

Place the sealed fruit-stuffed pouch on a roasting pan. Make light incisions into the fat layer in a crisscross pattern, being careful not to pierce through to the meat. Salt and pepper.

Roast 1 hour in the oven.
Reduce the temperature to 375°F (180°C), add a small glass of water to the roasting pan and roast an additional hour.
Spread the honey over the pork belly and roast 30 minutes longer.

Place the roasted pork belly onto a heated plate and cover with a tent of aluminum foil. Keep warm in the open oven.
Pour the Calvados and a little boiling water into the roasting pan and scrape thoroughly to recuperate all the good juices and other tasty crud that has encrusted itself onto the bottom of the roasting pan. Pour all this goodness into a saucepan. Add the sour cream. Let boil for 4-5 minutes. Serve on top of, alongside and poured all over the hot pig belly.

Serve with… you could serve this with, say, a side of potatoes and carrots, but you could also take it easy on your dinner guests. After all you are about to put 3 pounds of bacon stuffed with fruit and slathered with cream on the table. Leave room for dessert.

Ingredients

Pork belly with its rind approx. 2-½ pounds (1.2 kg)
Apples 3 (Granny Smith are recommended)
Sour cream 2/3 cup (150 ml)
Prunes pitted, 7 oz. (200 g), cut into small pieces
Lemon juice of 1
Honey 3 Tbsp.
Calvados 3 Tbsp., see Note below
Rosemary
Salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Peel, core and finely chop the apple. Mix with the lemon juice. Add in the cut-up prunes and the rosemary.
With a sharp knife, remove the tough outer skin of the pork belly, leaving the layer of fat intact. Resist all temptation to trim the fat off. This is the good stuff!
Now cut a large pocket into the thick of the pork belly. Be generous because now you need to stuff your 3 apples and your 20-odd prunes into this pocket.
Sew the opening tightly shut. (See note below)
Place the sealed fruit-stuffed pouch on a roasting pan. Make light incisions into the fat layer in a crisscross pattern, being careful not to pierce through to the meat. Salt and pepper.
Roast 1 hour in the oven.Reduce the temperature to 375°F (180°C), add a small glass of water to the roasting pan and roast an additional hour.
Spread the honey over the pork belly and roast 30 minutes longer.
Place the roasted pork belly onto a heated plate and cover with a tent of aluminum foil. Keep warm in the open oven.
Pour the Calvados and a little boiling water into the roasting pan and scrape thoroughly to recuperate all the good juices and other tasty crud that has encrusted itself onto the bottom of the roasting pan. Pour all this goodness into a saucepan. Add the sour cream. Let boil for 4-5 minutes.
Serve on top of, alongside and poured all over the hot pig belly.

Notes

Calvados: Calvados is an apple brandy from Normandy. According to the Gourmet Sleuth you can replace it with Armagnac, Applejack or unsweetened apple juice. I can’t guarantee your pork will be quite as content but in the absence of Calvados, it’s worth a try.

Sewing closed a pork belly: I had gotten this far without reading the recipe thoroughly ahead of time. Right…“sew the opening shut”. Apparently a pork belly-stitching needle and thread is standard kitchen equipment here in France. Perplexed, but not deterred, I created a suture of toothpicks inserted in x-formation. Julia Childs would have scoffed but it seemed to do the job and since, I’m going to go way out on a limb and assume you also don’t have such a needle in your kitchen drawer, I recommend you do the same.

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Crunchy oven-roasted potatoes

After finishing lunch, Jan declared that these potatoes are going to put us on the map. He was still talking about them the following morning over breakfast. These are so good you could even serve them for dessert (with honey and pecans, anyone?). So if you’ve been perusing my various recipes but you haven’t yet felt compelled to action, this is the one your spuds have been waiting for.

I was looking for a roasted potato recipe at my most trusted source for good food, Google, when I came across two sites, one boasting “perfect”, the other “ultimate”. What I concocted is somewhere between the two, clearly making these potatoes the most ultimately perfect ever.

Potatoes, 2.2 lbs. (1 kg)

Coconut oil, 3-½ oz (100 ml) (The recipe called for duck fat which I would have gladly tried but what we had in our refrigerator had expired 2 years ago and had kind of an expired-2-years-ago smell to it. Serendipity! The coconut oil added a great flavor. You can use any poultry fat or olive oil if you prefer.)

Semolina, 2 Tbsp.

Salt

Put a roasting pan into the oven at 400°F (200°C). Add the coconut oil or your choice of fat.
Peel the potatoes and cut into three pieces on a diagonal so that the middle piece is a triangle.

Put the potatoes into a pan and cover with water. Add salt. Boil the potatoes for 2 minutes (from when the water starts to boil). Drain.
Shake the potatoes vigorously back and forth in the pan.
Add the semolina. Shake again.

Create a diversion on the other side of the room. While the children are occupied, pour the semolina-covered, roughed-up potatoes into the hot oil in the roasting pan. Stir around to coat.
Roast for 40-50 minutes, flipping over every 15 minutes or so.
When they look crisp and golden and very beautiful, remove and sprinkle with salt.

Wow your dinner company, and impress even your husband.