BRIGHTON, BELLY PORK AND THE “FAT” COOKBOOK
Last year our family was fortunate enough to stay with friends in Brighton, England ... before travelling onto Paris and the south of France for a holiday.
During our stopover, our host Priya cooked a wonderful array of mainly classic French dishes - including Coq au vin, Cassoulet and Boudin blanc – and it really opened my eyes to the rustic nature of true French cuisine.
Till then – despite occasionally eating at some great French restaurants in Melbourne - I still had this misinformed prejudice that French cuisine was all sauces, creams and way too much butter!
And as one does when you stay with friends, I checked out our host’s recipe book collection and discovered an extraordinary cookbook called: “FAT: an appreciation of a misunderstood ingredient, with recipes.” The book is written by chef and writer Jennifer McLaglan, who co-incidentally is an expat’ Australian now living in Toronto, Canada.
One of the recipes in this book has become an all-time favourite ... despite the challenge of finding all the ingredients here in Hyderabad!
The recipe from the cookbook I found in the house in Brighton - that has become one of my all-time favourites - is “Slow-Roasted Pork Belly with Fennel and Rosemary”.
The thesis behind McClagan’s book is that until recent times fat in food was at the centre of western diet and culture and it was only 30 or so years ago – when scientists postulated a link between saturated fats and heart disease – that fat became labelled as “the greasy killer”! What followed was a processed food industry-induced hysteria that sucked the flavour and goodness from meats and butter, driving us into the arms of transfats and refined carbohydrates, tasteless pork and climaxing in an obsession with synthetic products like margarine and other dairy substitutes! Uuuughh, I can still remember the margarine we ate in my house during the 1970's!
McClagan argues that it’s time to redress the balance – that not all fats are bad for us; as she states in the book, at a time when the West is so obsessed with diets, exercise gimmicks, and low-calorie food additives we have never as a society been so overweight or unhealthy! (Many of these arguments are put from another perspective in Michael Pollan’s magnificent book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”; if you are interested in food & agri-politics, you have to read it!)
However, in regards to this recipe, buying pork meat in India was in the past a fairly dodgy affair - with the threat of picking up the parasitic brain disease Trichinosis - but in the last few years the industry has cleaned up its act and proper farming methods are now in place.
Some of the vegetables and herbs used in the recipe are also hard to find in Hyderabad such as sage and fennel; I have managed to conquer these particular culinary hurdles by growing my own herbs – including sage, and discovering an unusually western-focused vegetable supplier (Takari) who sells fresh fennel bulbs .... along with other non-traditional Indian vegetables such as lettuce and avocados.
After marinating the pork belly with a rub made of garlic, sage, rosemary, black pepper, fennel seeds and rock salt, the meat is slowly cooked in an oven for 2 ½ to 3 hours. The drippings from the meat mingle with a base of fresh onions, sliced fennel and the leftover fronds from the sage, rosemary and fennel plants and this becomes the side dish when mixed with poached kale – or, in my case, spinach. The cooking liquid from the casserole is then reduced with a mixture of white wine and mustard and the end result is an absolute masterpiece! I serve it with boiled or mashed potato on the side.
SLOW ROASTED PORK BELLY WITH FENNEL AND ROSEMARY
Ingredients:
1.5kg boneless pork belly, skin on 4 cloves garlic 15 fresh sage leaves, stems reserved 1 T fresh rosemary leaves, stems reserved 1 T sea salt 1 T fennel seeds, toasted in dry pan 1 t peppercorns 3 onions, sliced thickly 1 fennel bulb (I use 2 or 3 depending on size) 1 ½ cups dry white wine or vermouth 2 t fine sea salt 1 bunch of kales, shredded and cooked (I use spinach instead) 2 t Dijon mustard 1 t cornstarch
Method:
1/. Wash & dry pork belly, then score the skin with a blade/box cutter – but don’t cut through the meat.
2/. Peel & halve garlic and put in grinder or pestle with sage & rosemary leaves, coarse se salt, fennel seeds and peppersorns. Grind or pound to a paste & then rub onto meat side of the pork piece.
3/. Place pork in dish, skin side up, and marinate in fridge for 8 hours/overnight.
4/. Preheat oven to 220C. Remove meat from fridge and let come to room temperature.
5/. Slice fennel bulb(s) – reserving stems and fronds and place in bottom of deep pan along with the sliced onions. Add sage & rosemary leaves, along with extra fennel fronds. Add 1 C wine to pan, rub fine salt over pork skin and then place in pan on top of vegetables skin side up.
6/. Roast for 30 minutes, and then reduce heat to 160C and cook a further 2 to 2 ½ hours. Check liquid level in pan occasionally and add more water if needed to keep meat moist.
7/. Transfer pork to flat baking dish, remove fronds & stems and add rest of cooked vegetables to a serving tray.
8/. Poor cooking liquid into cup, let stand to allow fat to rise to the top and discard the fat.
9/. Crisp crackling on pork by placing it under oven grill (turned to high) till crackling is puffs up, curls & crisps. Watch it does not burn.
10/. Pour ½ C of cooking liquid into a saucepan and add mustard. Mix the cornstarch with remaining 1/2C of wine and add to sauce. Bring to boil over high heat, then stoir for 1 minute.
Serve sliced pork with vegetables and sauce.
Tony saab/Hyderabad, INDIA Sept 2012
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| Brighton Beach, U.K. |
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| Brighton weekend market |
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| Tara, Taj, Zia & Jade |
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| Priya and Juhee on Brighton Beach |
Till then – despite occasionally eating at some great French restaurants in Melbourne - I still had this misinformed prejudice that French cuisine was all sauces, creams and way too much butter!
 |
| "fat" cookbook by Jennifer McLaglan |
And as one does when you stay with friends, I checked out our host’s recipe book collection and discovered an extraordinary cookbook called: “FAT: an appreciation of a misunderstood ingredient, with recipes.” The book is written by chef and writer Jennifer McLaglan, who co-incidentally is an expat’ Australian now living in Toronto, Canada.
One of the recipes in this book has become an all-time favourite ... despite the challenge of finding all the ingredients here in Hyderabad!
 |
| Zia & Jade |
 |
| Taj & Zia outside the Royal Pavilion |
Brighton itself reminded me so much of the beachside suburb of St Kilda in Melbourne, where we lived for several years and spent many great times before moving to India. In fact, there is a remarkable similarity between the two towns – both towns have been holiday spots for city dwellers for the best part of two centuries, both have a remarkable array of seaside restaurants and cafes, both have iconic beaches with a prominent pier attracting hordes of tourists in the peak seasons, (both also have experienced arson attacks on the pier restaurants/restrooms in recent times!) and both town’s are also a mecca for university students, academics and other bohemian types attracted to a less hectic lifestyle than that offered in neighbouring London and Melbourne respectively.
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| The original Brighton pier - after the fire |
The recipe from the cookbook I found in the house in Brighton - that has become one of my all-time favourites - is “Slow-Roasted Pork Belly with Fennel and Rosemary”.
 |
| Pork after roasting for 3 hours |
McClagan argues that it’s time to redress the balance – that not all fats are bad for us; as she states in the book, at a time when the West is so obsessed with diets, exercise gimmicks, and low-calorie food additives we have never as a society been so overweight or unhealthy! (Many of these arguments are put from another perspective in Michael Pollan’s magnificent book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”; if you are interested in food & agri-politics, you have to read it!)
However, in regards to this recipe, buying pork meat in India was in the past a fairly dodgy affair - with the threat of picking up the parasitic brain disease Trichinosis - but in the last few years the industry has cleaned up its act and proper farming methods are now in place.
Some of the vegetables and herbs used in the recipe are also hard to find in Hyderabad such as sage and fennel; I have managed to conquer these particular culinary hurdles by growing my own herbs – including sage, and discovering an unusually western-focused vegetable supplier (Takari) who sells fresh fennel bulbs .... along with other non-traditional Indian vegetables such as lettuce and avocados.
 |
| The base of onions and fennel |
SLOW ROASTED PORK BELLY WITH FENNEL AND ROSEMARY
Ingredients:
1.5kg boneless pork belly, skin on 4 cloves garlic 15 fresh sage leaves, stems reserved 1 T fresh rosemary leaves, stems reserved 1 T sea salt 1 T fennel seeds, toasted in dry pan 1 t peppercorns 3 onions, sliced thickly 1 fennel bulb (I use 2 or 3 depending on size) 1 ½ cups dry white wine or vermouth 2 t fine sea salt 1 bunch of kales, shredded and cooked (I use spinach instead) 2 t Dijon mustard 1 t cornstarch
Method:
1/. Wash & dry pork belly, then score the skin with a blade/box cutter – but don’t cut through the meat.
2/. Peel & halve garlic and put in grinder or pestle with sage & rosemary leaves, coarse se salt, fennel seeds and peppersorns. Grind or pound to a paste & then rub onto meat side of the pork piece.
3/. Place pork in dish, skin side up, and marinate in fridge for 8 hours/overnight.
4/. Preheat oven to 220C. Remove meat from fridge and let come to room temperature.
5/. Slice fennel bulb(s) – reserving stems and fronds and place in bottom of deep pan along with the sliced onions. Add sage & rosemary leaves, along with extra fennel fronds. Add 1 C wine to pan, rub fine salt over pork skin and then place in pan on top of vegetables skin side up.
6/. Roast for 30 minutes, and then reduce heat to 160C and cook a further 2 to 2 ½ hours. Check liquid level in pan occasionally and add more water if needed to keep meat moist.
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| The cooked onions and fennel in a sauce |
8/. Poor cooking liquid into cup, let stand to allow fat to rise to the top and discard the fat.
9/. Crisp crackling on pork by placing it under oven grill (turned to high) till crackling is puffs up, curls & crisps. Watch it does not burn.
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| The sauce made from reducing cooking liquid, wine and mustard |
Serve sliced pork with vegetables and sauce.
Tony saab/Hyderabad, INDIA Sept 2012
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