French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [208]
CÔTES DE PORC EN SANGLIER
PORK CHOPS TO TASTE LIKE WILD BOAR
Pork chops can be marinated and cooked in the same way as the leg of pork described on page 364. Cut the rind from 4 thick loin chops, and reduce the quantities of the marinade by half; leave them for 2 to 4 days.
Cook them in the same way for about 45 minutes. Alternatively, shake flour over the chops when you take them from the marinade, brown them lightly in butter; add the heated and strained marinade plus a pint of good stock, or, in default, water. When the meat is tender, put it on the serving dish and keep it hot while you stir a tablespoon of red-currant jelly into the sauce and thicken it a little by letting it boil, stirring and lifting it so that it does not stick. Pour it over the meat, and serve with stewed celery (page 248) or prunes cooked as in the foregoing recipe for noisettes de porc aux pruneaux, or a potato purée.
This is a useful recipe to know for those occasions when it may be necessary to buy one’s meat in advance or, alternatively, when one has a small quantity of wine to use up for cooking.
TERRINÉE DE PORC
PORK CHOPS BAKED WITH POTATOES
4 pork chops, 1 lb. of potatoes, a small glass of white wine, 1 onion, 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, a few juniper berries, parsley, 4 oz. of ham or bacon.
Peel the potatoes and slice them evenly and very thinly. Arrange half of them, and half the sliced onion, in an earthenware casserole.
Near the bone of each pork chop put a small clove of garlic and a couple of juniper berries. Brown them on each side in a little pork dripping. Put them on top of the potatoes. Cover them with the remaining half of the potatoes and onion; season with salt and pepper. Cover with the bacon or ham in slices. Pour over the white wine. Put two or three layers of paper over the pot, then the lid. Cook in a very slow oven for about 3 hours. Before serving, pour off some of the abundant fat which will have come out of the meat, and garnish the dish with a little parsley. This is heavy, rustic food, but the flavour is delicious, and for lunch on a cold day it is a fine dish for three or four hungry people.
Cider can be used instead of wine.
CUISSOT DE PORC FRAIS EN SANGLIER
LEG OF PORK MARINATED IN WINE
This is a method of making domestic pig taste like wild boar. For those who happen to like this taste, it is remarkably successful. I don’t say it is a dish which one would want to eat very often but it is interesting to try once in a way, and also useful for those who have their own pigs and would like to vary the cooking of their pork from time to time.
For a half leg of fresh pork, weighing between 5 and 6 lb., the ingredients for the marinade are as follows: pint of red wine, 4 tablespoons of vinegar, 2 carrots, 1 onion, 2 shallots, 2 cloves of garlic, 3 bayleaves, half a dozen or so parsley stalks, several sprigs each of wild thyme and marjoram, a dozen whole peppercorns, a half-dozen juniper berries, 2 teaspoons of salt.
Slice the carrots, onions and shallots, put all the ingredients into a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer 5 minutes. Leave to cool.
Have the skin removed from the meat, which can be either boned or not, as you please; it is, of course, easier to deal with if it is boned, for a half leg is always an awkward piece to carve. Also score the fat lightly across the top, so that the marinade has more chance to sink in. Put the meat in a deep china bowl and pour the cooled marinade over it. Leave it to steep for 4 days, turning it once a day in the liquid.
Make a pint or so of well-seasoned stock from the skin of the pork, plus the bones if the meat has been boned, or some veal bones if it has not, vegetables and herbs. Strain, cool and remove the fat. To cook the meat you will need 2 tablespoons of olive oil or pork lard, 2 tablespoons of flour, the stock and the strained marinade.
Take the meat out of the marinade, remove any pieces of vegetables and herbs which