For me, I received two weighty tomes in the form of River Cottage Fish and River Cottage Meat. With a trusty flip of a coin River Cottage Meat won. So far so good. I had visions of lovely roasts, maybe a side of ribs when I flicked randomly through the book.
The recipe I landed on was Rice Pudding Pork....right.....
must not turn the page....will persist....it might be nice...swears violently in the direction of Belleau Cottage....sighs...accepts the inevitable...
Reading the recipe, it didn't seem too bad, no actual rice pudding involved and the recipe is based on a traditional Italian dish of braising pork in milk, fellow food blogger Clare at Feast and Glory made a version using Garlic and Rosemary which turned out very tasty by the sound of it. This version uses bay and thyme. It also uses brown sugar and nutmeg to give it hints of a rice pudding.
The recipe is fairly simple:
Rice Pudding Pork
Ingredients
2-2.5 Pork loin, rolled and boned.
gratings of fresh nutmeg
olive oil
50g butter
1-1.5 litres whole milk, hot
2 tsp brown sugar
3-4 bay leaves, fresh if possible
3 sprigs of thyme
zest of one lemon
salt and pepper
Method
Season the pork with salt and pepper and grate over nutmeg.
Leave in the pan.
Melt the butter in a saucepan large enough for the pork, stir in a third of the hot milk and sugar.
Place the pork in the pan and pour over the remainder of the milk.
Very gently simmer for about 1 and a half to two hours.
Allow the pork to rest out of the pan and serve with the sauce and the curdles of milk from the pan.
Verdict
Well that's not half bad actually, soft very slightly milky pork in a slightly too sweet sauce with hints of thyme and nutmeg. The curdles of milk are very very good, soft and creamy. If I were to do this again I would try it with garlic and rosemary as it sounds more up my street and hopefully not as sweet.
Hhhmmmm. Not sure. Remain to be convinced. Very brave and very well done for not turning the page. I also like your name for this months theme.. The Ghost of Christmas Past. Nice. Really not a fan of rice pudding either but it certainly is a random recipe... Thanks for entering. Wishing you a merry Chrimbo.
ReplyDeleteI think cooking in milk can be really good and this sounds lovely to me. I often soften meat for pasta sauces by cooking in milk and this year I found that turkey pieces cook well in milk with a lot of onions and flavourings.
ReplyDeleteThis recipe looks interesting, i haven't tried cooking pork with milk to make it tender, and i think it taste good, thank you for this idea.
ReplyDeleteI remember cooking this same recipe a few years ago and loved it despite it looking a bit..well..odd. Maybe I will give the garlic and rosemary version a go.
ReplyDeleteWow - brave for persevering on this one! But glad it tasted good! I've seen a few different recipes for pork cooked in milk in the past and was always equally intrigued and horrified...
ReplyDeleteYou're braver than I am - I might have been tempted to quietly turn the page, I like my pork with crackling, you see. It's probably something that I'd happily try eating, but wouldn't be brave enough to actually try cooking. Well done for sticking with it, though!
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