The Belfried Pig

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

The Belfried Pig

Aromatic Garlic & Herb Pork Rub In The Style Of Elizabeth David

This is Lock Down pig suprême: elegant, satisfying and redemptive in its simplicity, right on autumn’s doorstep. Smack dab at the point where the austerity of the restrictive local lock down measures are making serious inroads into the hearts, minds and liberties of all and sundry.

Food is not just dead fuel solely intended to power us through the day. It has metaphysical Life and the power to uplift, cast down, elevate and subjugate. Our lives, societies and history are crawling with examples of Food’s sway over our days. This leads me to suspect that for the moral, thinking person the connection between Food and emotion is probably unavoidable and quite natural. Those regular readers of this Blog, who’ve been paying attention, will know by now that Food and I share a deep and emotive connection. This bond is probably amplified by my somewhat austere and reserved lifestyle wherein I eschew the usual suspects of male distraction: alcohol, smoking, substance abuse and shunning female companions of questionable moral fibre. This emotional connection to Food and cooking partly explains the existence of this Blog and my verbose waxing forth in nearly every post on this Blog.

But back to the business at hand: the “Belfried Pig” is an indirect reference to the line

“I’m hiding in the belfry”

from Tanita Tikaram’s song The World Outside Your Window on her Ancient Heart studio album of 1988. The song deals to an extent with self imposed social distancing. The singer feels she doesn’t ‘fit in’ in her community and perceives this awkwardness even in the intimacy of the romantic relationship with her apparently younger but closed-in partner. These feelings of ‘not fitting in’ extend directly to the Covid-19 lock down here and now where we are semi-voluntarily holed up at home, isolated and safe in our figurative towers, from which we only venture out on furtive excursions to hunt down household essentials, whilst resolutely avoiding strangers (and even acquaintances) as much as possible. Under these conditions, where our mortal coils are anxiously uncertain, the Belfried Pig descends Valkyrie-like from the leaden heavens to uplift our tower-closeted spirits and hammer home hope for – and faith in – better days to come.

Elizabeth David (Image from foodheroesandheroines.wordpress.com)

The basic flavour foundation for this recipe comes from Elizabeth David, the illustrious grand doyenne of British Cooking and Food writing of the preceding century. She had an interesting and elegantly simple little pork rub recipe for the pan frying of pork cutlets (known as ‘chops’ in the rest of the English speaking world). Mère David recommended “mixing crushed, dried [juniper] berries with chopped fennel bulb, salt, olive oil and garlic as seasoning for pork chops.” (See Reference 1 below)

I am not particular to fresh fennel. Not only is it hard to find in South Africa, but the persistently intrusive, liquorice-like flavour and taste does not light up my boat. Fennel seed, on the other hand, I can work with.

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Garlic & Herb Pork Rub Ingredients, Close-up

Far be it for a mere mortal such as myself to criticize or – heavens forbid! – improve on mère David, but ... Her recipe uses fresh herbs and garlic. Now go and try to find fresh fennel today at your friendly local greengrocer or leading Food emporium. You’ll find fresh garlic, yes, but at an eye watering premium necessitating a second and, quite possibly, even third mortgage on your home tower, and still no fresh fennel. You’ll agree this is not ideal, even for the blow flame focussed gastronomes amongst us.

Step up to the plate dried herbs and spices, please? Most are easy to find at your more upmarket grocery stores except maybe dried juniper berries. These you’ll find at Asian food supply stores or even the better stocked bakery supply stores. And Bay Leaf Powder along with Orange Peel Powder you can make yourself, if you haven’t already.

At the risk of admitting to unrepentant blasphemy, I have to confess that I found mère David’s original rub recommendation a wee spot lacking in the balance department. So I improved it somewhat ... And I suspect the old biddy will approve. When it comes to pork, fennel and garlic are old partners from even before primary school days, but rosemary (in moderation) is a welcome and warmly appreciated addition. Orange and fennel are also a well known and accepted combination by themselves. What is less well known, is the addition of bay leaf to orange and fennel and how they round out and support the basic flavour structure of pork. Combining this entire lot results in a Party that gyrates and sweats way into the wee hours and is long afterwards still whispered of in hushed awe behind school pavilions and assembly hall toilets.

The optional celery seed boosts the savoury foundation of pork chops where a young pig was the source material. Modern, bulk produced pork has a lot going for it, but the pigs are fattened like battery chickens and are not allowed to exercise. This limits the formation of exercise toughened musculature and inhibits (to some extent) the essential ‘piggyness’ of the somewhat bland but tender meat. Celery seed rectifies this without going overboard and transforming our cuddly piggy-wiggly into a snarling and stinky old boar.

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AROMATIC GARLIC & HERB PORK RUB

– PRINT RECIPE –

Recipe yields:

± 30mL Rub mixture

Preparation time:

± 10 Minutes

Cooking time:

12 – 40 Minutes

Difficulty level:

Easy

Special Equipment Required:

1 x Electrical, rotating blade type coffee grinder.

1 x Fine mesh tea sieve.

Ingredients:

Dried garlic flakes	15ml
Dried rosemary	5ml
Fennel seeds	2.5ml
Dried juniper berries	5
Optional: celery seed	2.5ml

Orange peel powder	5ml
Ground bay leaf	1.2ml

Medium pork loin chops, lean	2
Salt	2.5ml

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Method:

Combine all the garlic flakes, rosemary, fennel seed, juniper berries and celery seed (if used) in the bowl of the coffee grinder. Grind in 30 second intervals; frequently shaking the grinder to ensure efficient grinding.
Pay close attention to the safety precautions described in the Bay Leaf Powder post.
Sift the ground material through a fine mesh tea sieve.
Return the material remaining in the sieve and grind again. Sieve and repeat until all the solid material has been ground up.
Add the orange and bay leaf powders to the sifted, ground mixture. Stir through to mix thoroughly to create the rub mixture.
Brush the pork chops with a small volume of sunflower oil on both sides about 1 hour prior to cooking. Liberally sprinkle the oiled chops on both sides with the Garlic & Herb Spice mixture. Cover and set aside for 1 hour to infuse the flavours into the meat. Salt lightly on both sides just before cooking.
Lightly oil a suitably sized skillet or heavy frying pan and warm it up over medium high heat. Lay the chops in the pan; cover and reduce the heat to medium. Depending on the thickness of the chops: fry ± 5 – 6 minutes on one side and 3 – 4 minutes on the other side, or until well cooked but not overdone. Transfer the chops from the pan to a pre-warmed plate, cover and allow to rest for ± 5 minutes in a low oven. Serve with fluffy mashed potatoes and buttery Vichy style carrots with peas.
Alternatively: Roast the chops approx. 35 – 40 minutes on a wire rack in a shallow oven pan at 165°C in a preheated convection oven. Turn the chops once halfway through and sprinkle both sides lightly with Garlic & Herb Spice mixture. Remove from the oven when done and allow to rest uncovered for 3 – 4 minutes before serving as described above.

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Comments:

Serve with a crisp, unwooded Chardonnay (slightly cooled) or a cold Semillon. Even a well chilled Blanc de blanc will work well here.
Store the remaining Garlic & Herb Spice mixture in a bottle with a tightly fitting top, preferably in the deep freeze. The ground juniper and orange peel are quite sensitive to the relentless double onslaughts of oxygen and direct sunlight.
Sprinkle some of the Garlic & Herb Spice mixture over your next round of fluffy scrambled eggs for an intriguing twist of Eggs & Baked Beans on Toast. Serve the Toast with milky Earl Grey tea. Yes, I know, Earl Grey and milk borders on coprophilia for some, but I dare you to try it. Not the coprophilia of course, that’s just plain a-bridge-too-far weird.

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DRIED JUNIPER BERRIES:

Juniper is locally – and probably worldwide to boot – most commonly encountered and used as gin, that hallowed and widely loved (or despised) tipple of the British Empire. Juniper, as principle flavourant, of course lords it over all the other ingredients in a typical, off the shelf gin, but this is gradually changing with the advent of speciality gins with all sorts of other, often unexpected ingredients.

The juniper berry was well known to the ancient Romans, Greeks and Arabs, all of whom promptly hung all sorts of medicinal qualities – real or imagined – on its hat stand. Since then we’ve come some ways in using it properly in the kitchen.

Locally, we don’t encounter fresh juniper berries often. The dried berry is available and has a fragrant and flowery bouquet, reminiscent of gin and turpentine. In fact, it is the only edible spice derived from a conifer. Crush the berries and the hefty, freight train-like aroma slaps you right on the nose: sharp, aromatic, coniferous, bittersweet, hale and with elusive hints of balsamic vinegar and lemon peel. In other words, a big player with fascinating abilities and not a shred of self-doubt or shame.

Juniper has a particular affinity for game and venison, which is also what it is primarily associated with in the West, particularly Europe and the British Isles. Other popular pairings include:

beef	lamb	oranges	sauerkraut
cabbage	liver	pâtés	veal
game birds	veal kidneys	pork
ham	mutton	stuffings

A few crushed juniper berries does wonders for any wine based marinade for game such as venison, rabbit and wild boar (the local equivalent will be bush pig). Roast leg of lamb, goulash, duck, pork chops and quite a few pâtés benefit from juniper’s sharpness that cuts through and eviscerates the sweetish, but abundant fattiness of the afore mentioned parties.

And as a parting shot, a touch of juniper does surprising and fascinating things to a regular, staid old apple tart.