Terrine de porc et poulet

Terrines are very versatile. There are meat and fish terrines, vegetarian terrines are common too. They can be served warm as a main dish, or cold as an appetizer or simple dinner with a loaf of fresh bread. I often make this terrine when we invite someone over for dinner, but sometimes I cook it just for ourselves.

Terrines are actually the baking dishes in which terrines are cooked. They are mostly rectangular or oval and have a lid. I don't have a proper terrine bowl, so I use a tall rectangular baking dish and alfoil.

Ingredients:

250gr of pork mince

250gr of mince from chicken thighs

150gr chicken liver

150gr of good quality bacon in long thin slices (pancetta is even better)

1 small onion, finely diced

2 tablespoons of finely sliced basil

3 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon of butter

1 tablespoon of chopped dried cranberries

1-2 tablespoons of cognac - optional

salt, pepper

1.Mix together the mince, basil, olive oil, dried cranberries and cognac (if it's available). Season with salt and pepper and let stand in the fridge for a couple of hours.

2. Sautee the finely diced onion with butter until soft, but not brown. Add to the mince and mix well.

3. Take your baking dish and line it with bacon. You should kind of wrap the bacon around the meat filling when you put it inside the baking dish. It is best to take two pieces of bacon and put one of their ends opposite one another on the bottom of the dish and let the other ends hang from the sides on top of the dish. It should cover the walls of the baking dish completely.

4. Put half of the meat mixture into the baking dish, kinda inside the "bacon basket". Cut the liver into pieces about the size of a cherry. Put on top of the meat and cover with the leftover meat. Devide evenly and cover with the slices of bacon hanging from the sides of the baking dish. Cover with a lid or alfoil, tightly seal.

5. Heat up the oven to 175C and put inside a big baking dish or tray with water. Place the terrine into the water, it should cover at least half of the terrine bowl. Cook for about 1,5 hour.

6. Take the terrine out of the oven and let stand for about 10 minutes. Uncover and remove, or pour out, ecxess fat. Cover again and let the terrine cool down before cutting.

This terrine tastes best with fresh, crusty bread and some vegetables, and maybe also a blob of cranberry jam.

Pork chops with orange juice, dijon mustard and honey

We are now in a very busy studying period and so I don’t do any complicated cooking. Just simple stuff. These pork chops take about 5 minutes to marinate and 15 minutes to cook, you can cook a side dish at the same time. This blend of flavors is quite traditional and fairly classic but I have never used it on pork, mostly on chicken. Interestingly, it worked out very well! The meat has a very delicate but zesty flavour and is incredibly tender.

Ingredients:
1kg of pork chops
Juice of 2 oranges
2 teaspoons of honey
1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon of Maille Provencale mustard – optional, I just happened to have it in house
Some rosemary and marjoram – or other herbs
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt, pepper

Blend together the juice, honey, mustard and oil, add salt, pepper and fresh herbs to taste. Pour over the pork chops and leave in the fridge overnight. Take them out of the fridge 1 hour prior to cooking so that the marinade liquidizes a bit and is not so thick. Heat up a pan with a some oil and cook the chops on medium heat for about 10-15 minutes, depending on how thick they are.
I served the chops with some sautéed kale (mangold) and grilled paprika.

Maiale in Latte

The holidays are over and I'm back in the kitchen. We wanted a hearty homestyle meal after all the restaurants and seafood. I decided to try one recipe from one of my Italian cook books. It's called pork in milk (Maiale in latte) and we liked it, even though it's more like a winter meal...

Ingredients:

1.5 kg whole piece of pork chops with bones (I couldn't find a whole piece so I used 2 smaller pieces)

1 litre of whole milk

4-6 cloves of garlic (I prefer Czech garlic to Chinese, it's got much more flavour)

1-2 rosemary stems (sage should be added as well, but I didn't have any)

juice of one lemon

zest of one lemon

some olive oil

Instructions:

Heat up oven to 200C.

Preferably use a cast iron pan or skillet with a lid, or at least a heavy one made of other metal (I hate thin walled cook ware). Heat up some olive oil and sear the meat until it has a brown crust. Remove some of the fat and put the halved garlic cloves and rosemary on the bottom of the pan, put the meat on top.

Pour the milk over meat and season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Bring to boil, remove from fire and add lemon juice and zest, stir, cover and put into the heated oven. Bake covered for half an hour, uncover and cook another hour until the liquid reduces to form a sauce. I also added some rosemary infused olive oil, but I don't think it actually made a difference.

Milk and lemon sound weird together because milk products naturally clot when mixed with acid. This sauce is supposed to clot. You can reduce the clotting effect by adding the lemon much later or even just before serving, but the taste will not be the same in my opinion. You might also strain the sauce through a strainer.

I served the meat with pommes fondantes, which are coming up in the next recipe.