Category Archives: pork

crispy baked pork ribs

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Don’t ask. I wasn’t even planning to make ribs today, but one thing led to another and here we are. Then, since I suddenly had both ribs and a huge chunk of presa Ibérica, and the original plan had been to do a whole presa in hoisin marinade (more on that later) I didn’t want to make my tried and tested hoisin pork ribs. So I got to wondering if my friend Lizzie’s method for baking chicken wings would work on ribs (it works great on drumsticks!) but without the help of nice fatty chicken skin I wasn’t sure if the ribs would get crispy. Then I found a recipe that slathered whole racks of ribs with mayo before dredging them in flour and baking them so I thought I’d try doing this with spare ribs and my salsa az. And they turned out great, nicely crisp and still tender. I would just make sure to shake off more of the excess flour before baking next time.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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hoisin pork ribs

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I love hoisin sauce and don’t use it often enough, so when I thought of making ribs the other day I remembered the two jars of hoisin in the pantry I’d recently stocked up on. This sauce was delicious but I think I’ll try adding some ginger and maybe a few chilli flakes next time. Also most of the recipes I came across online included 5 spice powder, which I have yet to come across here. I think with a base of hoisin, soy and rice wine vinegar – I added the white wine just to thin it out a bit – you can easily play around and adapt it with whatever else you like (or happen to have in the kitchen). Very sticky, super tasty.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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presa ibérica al palo cortado

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This was inspired by a delicious tapa of presa al palo cortado that I had at the fabulous Bodeguita Romero a few days before NYE. I decided then and there that I wanted to try and make it myself, even though I’d only ever cooked presa “a la plancha” before. Presa is an upper shoulder cut (see diagram below, pluma is a lower cut and a bit fattier, both are delicious) and the piece I found for this meal was 600 grams.

What I didn’t expect was that it would shrink so much but, to be honest, I think I overcooked it a bit (full disclosure: fell asleep watching netflix while it was on low heat). Later I discovered that some of the “shrinkage” was due to a fair bit of meat shredding off and ending up in the sauce, which was QUITE reduced by the time I woke up again. But hey, no problem. I removed the presa and slowly added more broth and sherry, whisking madly until I got a nicely textured sauce again. In fact, this might be what I do in future, because then you end up with MEAT SAUCE, which frankly was totally yum. But I digress.

Many thanks to my friends, the family at @bodeguitaromero and chef @jose_pizarro who helped out with cooking tips while I was making this. With sides, serves four.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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honey-garlic-mustard Ibérico pork ribs

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Not super accurate measurements for this one. With the marinade you can obviously play around a bit. Just make sure there’s enough acid (wine, vinegar), seasoning (s&p) and whatever other flavours you like. Fresh herbs like rosemary, thyme or sage also work well. I usually like to marinate these babies overnight in the fridge, but just a couple of hours at room temperature is also fine.

I also like to use a glass roasting dish I have with a handy plastic lid because then I can use the same marinating dish for cooking (the lid is also good if you’re keeping it in the fridge overnight, plus it’s extra easy to occasionally shake it up and slosh the marinade around, getting it all over the ribs). Otherwise, just marinate the ribs in a large bowl, turning often to keep them coated on all sides. Then transfer them to a baking dish to cook, draining off most of the marinade (but keep it to one side in case you want it for basting). Anyhow, really tasty comfort food, made even better if you take advantage of the oven being on to roast some veg on the side.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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meatloaf

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meatloaf (2)

So I was lying in bed a couple of mornings ago, scrolling through my Twitter timeline, and up popped a recipe video for meatloaf. And I thought… meatloaf! Wow, I hadn’t had meatloaf in YEARS. So that day I went out and got the basic ingredients, then did a bit of improvising. Result – delish. Total comfort food. Leftovers make great sandwiches.

This recipe ended up making two loaves that could easily feed six people or more, depending on the side dishes. The meat ratio is 2/3 beef and 1/3 pork, so you can play around with quantities.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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albóndigas al amontillado

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albondigas amontillado (1)
It had been awhile since I made albóndigas and while deciding which sauce I would make – tomato or fino sherry – it occurred to me to try them with amontillado sherry. And I have to say they turned out fabulous. For this sauce I left out the pancetta, used more garlic and added some whole chilli peppers.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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albóndigas (meatballs) with 2 sauces

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albondigas (1)
I started off with an urge to make some good old fashioned meatballs, but couldn’t decide on a sauce. Eventually I went with a traditional Spanish tomato sauce but then – oops – ended up making way to many meatballs for the amount of sauce I had. So I had to come up with a second sauce for the extra meatballs and decided to go with a sherry sauce. The original tomato sauce recipe I had called for pancetta, but I chose to use up some jamón and chorizo threads I had in the fridge instead and the result was very tasty. Then for the sherry sauce I used bacon bits. Just to say that the pancetta can be switched for something similar.

My first batch made about 30 meatballs (which is why I needed another sauce). I’ve halved the recipe to make 15 meatballs with one of the sauces, or you can double it and make both sauces. Frankly, it takes almost as much effort to make 30 meatballs as 15, and they freeze well, so I’d always opt for going with the larger batch.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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carrillada al oloroso

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carrillada oloroso (1)
Since the first time I made carrillada (stewed Ibérico pork cheeks) I have tried making them in different ways, but then recently created a killer version when preparing a dish for an Introduction to Sherry class that was so good I wanted to share it here. What could be better for a sherry class than cheeks slow-cooked in sherry? And the perfect sherry in my mind was oloroso. So as usual I had a look around and found several versions of carrillada al oloroso, tweaked them here and there, and came up with this one.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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