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MIDDLE WHITE PORK WITH ARTICHOKE SAUCE

Please click on the image to see enlarged version of the finished recipe.

This recipe started life as a way to make some inroads into the huge quantities of both Jerusalem artichokes and leeks which we have in the garden at the moment but turned out so delicious I thought I would share it.  Unlike much other pork, Middle White is not just for lunchtime – this recipe would make a very nice dinner party dish, generous for 4 people, but it also works well for two people in lockdown together. If you are just two, there will be meat left over to eat cold – but there is nothing more delicious than cold Middle White.  The quantities I have given for the sauce will make quite a large quantity – plenty for four people.  It sits somewhere between a sauce and a very light additional vegetable and I think it is unusually good, with the cider giving a very slight ‘petillant’ sensation on the tongue.  I serve this dish with peas and some crispy rosemary and garlic potatoes – recipe below. 

Instructions

  • Ingredients
    1.5kg joint Middle White pork
    500g Jerusalem artichokes
    3 good sized leeks
    75-100ml cider – not too sweet
    3 heaped tbs crème fraiche
    A knob of good unsalted butter
    Light olive oil for roasting
    Sea salt and black pepper
    A few drops good quality truffle oil (optional) 
    Set the oven to 220 degrees and make sure it is really hot before you put the meat in.  Dry the meat very thoroughly with kitchen paper, slather with a light olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Roast for about 1¼ hours, keeping watch to make sure the crackling doesn’t burn – you may need to reduce the heat for the final 15 minutes.  This should give you meat which is nicely moist and still just pink in the middle. 
    Meanwhile peel the artichokes and chop them into similar sized pieces.  Set them to boil in well salted water.  You want them really soft but not totally ‘washed out’ – about ten minutes from when they come to the boil.  Clean and finely slice the leeks (mainly white but some green is OK) and boil them in well-salted water until they collapse –rather less time than for the artichokes. 
    Liquidise he strained artichokes and leeks with almost all the cider until they are completely smooth.  Season, add the butter and crème fraiche and whizz lightly again. Add the last little bit of cider and mix for seconds only.  This is to give the sauce its slight fizz so you don’t want to whizz all the air out of it!  At this point you can add a few drops of good quality truffle oil if you want to but not so much as to swamp the rather subtle taste of this sauce.  If you have some to hand, we think it adds a little extra complexity but the sauce is also extremely good without it. 
    Crispy Garlic and Rosemary Potatoes
    Ingredients
    Floury potatoes such as King Edward’s
    Finely chopped garlic
    Finely chopped rosemary
    Suitablefat for roasting (see below)
    Sea salt
    Peel the potatoes and cut into 1.5-2cm dice. Bring to the boil in well salted water and boil for 7-8 minutes, until starting to soften but not collapsing. Strain, return to the pan and shake to ‘rough up’ the edges. 
    Meanwhile put the fat in a roasting tin which will take the potato pieces with plenty of space to spare. I use a combination of a light olive oil and Middle White pork fat.  A mixture of oil and butter works fine but there is nothing to beat Middle White fat* for roasting potatoes.  Heat the fat on top of the stove, add the potatoes when it is starting to sizzle and roast in a hot oven for about half an hour.  Add the garlic and rosemary and cook for a further ten minutes until the potatoes are nicely crisp (don’t add the garlic too soon or it will burn). Sprinkle with sea salt and serve. 
    *|WheneverI roast our Middle White, I tip the fat from the pan into a jam jar and keep it in the fridge.  Periodically too, I ask for extra fat from our butchery and render it. This is a completely straightforward exercise: cut the fat up into smallish pieces and put in a large roasting pan in a low oven (the bottom oven of an Aga works well).  After a couple of hours the pieces of fat will have shrivelled and will be swimming in a sea of translucent fat.  Tip this off into a jamjar and discard the solids.  Keep the fat in the fridge – where it will turn into a delicious white solid, perfect for roasting potatoes (and knocking goose fat which many people use for that purpose into a cocked hat!).  A pack of fat is available free of charge with any order over £50 – just ask.      
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