Orange, Sage & Fennel Roasted Pork

3-4 lbs piece pork shoulder

1 orange
1 fennel bulb
1 medium onion
3-4 garlic cloves
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp coarse sea salt
4-5 whole leaves sage
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
1-2 small sprigs rosemary

Preheat the oven to 300F

Clean the garlic clove, and cut into "sticks" (cut in half lengthwise, and then again). Peel the orange, making sure the peel doesn't have any white. Cut into strips. Make 10-12 small incisions or slits in the pork shoulder. Don't go too deep. Work a little piece of garlic and 1-2 strips of orange in each slit.

Slice the fennel and onion, and place both in the bottom of a roasting pan. Rub the paprika and cayenne pepper on the meat, sprinkle on the coarse salt. Place the meat on top of the fennel-onions, and cover with the thyme, the rosemary, and finally the sage.

Roast the pork for 2 hours in the moderate oven. Take out, lower the temperature to 280F. Add a cup of water to the roasting pan, cover the pork with foil, and place the pan back into the oven to roast covered for another 2 hours.

Take out, strain the juices. Reduce the pan jus a little, and taste (careful not to add salt. And if already too salty, add some water). You can do all this ahead of time. When ready to eat, bring the oven temperature to 390F, and roast the uncovered pork for 30 minutes until crisp. Serve sliced with the reduced pan jus.

We had it with white beans braised with black kale, and added the slow-cooked fennel from the roasting pan last minute as well.


I cooked this staying at the New Moorings Farm in Sedgwick, Maine. See the story With A Pitchfork In My Kitchen here

Lamb Kofte, Saffron Rice, and Colorful Salad

When minced lamb smells good enough to eat raw, close your eyes and you can almost picture the animal running around in a meadow rich with grasses and wildflowers. On my kitchen board was farm-fresh, pasture-raised lamb from a local ranch (link). This lamb begged for fresh herbs, for natural sweetness, for a hint of spiciness. It longed for a gentle roll on the hot grill. This lamb also sought a tantalizing liaison with the vibrant colors and crisp flavors of fresh vegetables, and the fragrance of saffron in rice. This was a weekday meal for us, one we loved so much I decided to cook the same for friends when they came to dinner. And like often, the question arose: "so do you cook like this every day?" Well, yes, I do. When I'm not eating out somewhere.

Dessert was a yogurt-coconut-lemon cake, a recipe for another time. Following recipes are for 3-4: adjust amounts accordingly!

Colorful Salad
1 orange
1 medium fennel bulb
1/2 small red cabbage
4-5 radish
1 medium red beetroot
2-3 scallions
2 small cucumber
fresh herbs (to taste)

vinaigrette
You can use any vinaigrette you like. Here's one I use
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Tarragon Vinegar (I make my own; use another vinegar if you don't have)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp tahina (if you don't like tahina in this vinaigrette, use mustard)
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint and parsley

Prepare the vegetables: grate the beetroot, shave fennel and cabbage, slice radish thin, dice the cucumber, and chop the scallions. Layer in a wide bowl. Clean the orange and cut segments (without white). Catch the orange juice that spills and add to the vinaigrette. Add the orange to the salad, scatter fresh herbs over it all. Make a vinaigrette by mixing all ingredients together. Add the vinaigrette just before you're ready to serve. Toss at the table (all separate colors will run red the moment you toss the salad, owing to the beetroot).

Lamb Kofte
500 gr ground lamb
1 tbsp mixed spice (equal amounts of cumin, ground ginger, paprika, cayenne)
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint and oregano (2/3 mint, 1/3 oregano)
sea salt & fresh ground pepper to taste
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp dhibs (date syrup)
1 clove of garlic, minced

Saffron Rice
2 cups basmati rice
4 cups water
1 pinch saffron threads
1 medium/small onion, diced fine
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter

Rinse the rice 2-3 times. Pound half of the saffron threads in a mortar and pestle. Bring 1 cup water (of the 4 cups) to a boil, add to the pounded saffron and leave to infuse. Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the onion and sweat gently over low heat until soft and translucent. Add the rice and stir to coat in the onion-butter. Add the pounded saffron, and the water. Add salt to taste, and the rest of the saffron threads. Bring to a boil and let simmer slowly until fluffy and soft.

Cucumber, Mint & Yogurt Sauce
1 cup thick yogurt (if you use plain yogurt: let it strain in a cheesecloth for an hour or so)
1 small cucumber
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced (depending on how much garlic you like)
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint
salt flakes and fresh ground pepper to taste

Grate the cucumber, and let it strain in a sieve to get rid of excess liquid. Mix with the thick yogurt, and add garlic, mint, and seasoning.

and this is what happens when you toss the salad: all shades of delicious red

A recent post on Texas Local Meat: In My Kitchen here

My meat came from A Better Way Beef, a local farm I found through www.eatwild.com

Find me on Facebook (here) and Twitter (here)

Braised Lamb Shanks with Rosemary and Espelette

This is one of these recipes that are perfect every season. In winter, these lamb shanks love a hearty creamy rich polenta and roasted carrots. In spring, it likes to sit atop a garden pea and green asparagus risotto. In summer, it goes oh so well with a tossed summer salad, crusty bread, and a red pepper aioli. And in autumn, how about a roasted pumpkin mash and sauteed mushrooms?

Culinary Trivia: Espelette
Espelette is a chilli pepper from the Basque region in the South-West of France. Named after the town of Espelette in the Pays Basque, this fragrant and mild red pepper is traditionally used in making Bayonne ham. The peppers are harvested in summer, and hung to dry on strings. In Markets & Platters, a fresh seafood gourmet shop in Dubai, I saw these peppers dried and strung together, hanging just above the purple artichokes. "Can I buy individual peppers?" I asked, aware that an entire string would be just a little too ambitious. Sold only per string, I generously got a pepper anyway. Chopped into rings, part of it went into the braising liquid. The rest I powdered.

aromatic garnish with espelette

Braised Lamb Shanks with Rosemary and Espelette
recipe for 4

4 lamb shanks
1-2 twigs fresh rosemary
1/2 Espelette pepper, chopped*
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small carrot, chopped
1 small bay leaf
6-8 cloves of garlic, crushed
salt/pepper to taste
1 cup red wine
1 cup stock (preferably veal but chicken or beef will do)

• preheat the oven to 180C
• Season the lamb shanks all over with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in an ovenproof casserole, and brown the shanks on all sides. Take out. 
• Add all aromatics (onion, garlic, carrot, etc) to the pan. Stir around a little and let caramelise slightly for 2-3 minutes. Add the red wine and scrape off all browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Let the wine come to a boil, and reduce to half. 
• Add a cup of stock, bring to a boil and arrange the lamb shanks with the bone facing up. They will be standing in a shallow base of stock, which is perfect.
• Close the lid and place the casserole in the preheated oven. Bake for about 2 hours. By that time, the meat will have withdrawn from the bone and be tender.
• Let cool slightly, then strain the liquid. Discard all aromatics. Cool the strained liquid in the fridge: I find it a lot easier to degrease the sauce this way, by simply scraping off the solidified fat. You can degrease the "kitchen professional" way: spoon by spoon scoop out the fat from the liquid's surface.
• Once you're happy with the sauce in terms of fat, taste and adjust seasoning if needed. My guess is you'll be happy with the sauce as is. Maybe add just a little salt, a sprinkling of fresh pepper, or in this case: add some more powdered espelette. If you find the sauce too hearty, add a little honey or brown (raw cane) sugar.

*if you have no whole espelette, use powdered (1 tsp or to taste). Of course, if you have no espelette at all, replace with a mild dried chilli.

lamb shanks ready to go into the oven

tender, juicy meat falling off the bone

Beef Tongue in Lemongrass Infused Stock

served chilled with Fire Roasted Poblano Salsa Verde

Beef tongue is a grizzly looking thing, raw and straight from the butcher. I feel like a weirdo when I have one in my trolley, putting it on the belt at the checkout. I can see people glance at "that thing" and then at me. Beef tongue, however is So Good! It needs a little work, a lot of TLC, and definitely it needs attention to aesthetics. Nobody wants to look at elongated tastebuds on their plate.




What IS so good about (a well-prepared!) beef tongue? It is the texture and flavor. A slice of slow-cooked beef tongue will melt on your tongue, its texture ever so soft and its flavor rich with the aromatics of the stock it simmered in for hours.

The essential steps of preparing beef tongue:

1. soak it (whole and as is) in ice-cold water, for at least a couple of hours or overnight. Refresh the water a couple of times. The reason for this: it draws out impurities. By refreshing the water regularly, you rinse the tongue as it soaks.

2. prepare a well-flavored, tasty and hearty stock. Aromatics such as onion, celery, carrot, garlic, bayleaf, thyme, stalks of parsley, etc work very well for beef tongue.

3. simmer the beef tongue whole in this stock for a minimum of 2 hours (a rough average is 1 hour per 500gr (or 1 lbs) of tongue).

4. take the cooked beef tongue out, let it cool enough so you can handle it. Strip off the outer skin (with the tastebuds). It will come off easy, looking like pieces of leather.

beef tongue salad with red cabbage and salsa verde

For The Stock
Enough water so the beef tongue is fully submerged
1 medium onion, cut into medium dice
1/2 leek, cut into rings
1/2 carrot, cut into medium dice
1 stalk celery, chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, crushed
3-4 stalks of lemongrass, crushed (or less if you like)
a handful of stalks from parsley and koriander
black pepper to taste
salt to taste

Add all aromatics to the water and bring to a boil. Simmer the beef tongue in this stock for a minimum of 2 hours (see step 3 above).

Fire Roasted Poblano Salsa Verde
1 poblano pepper (or green chili if you don't have poblano, but be careful with the heat)
1/2 bunch green onion, washed, dried, and crown and harder white outside removed
2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped fine
1 small bunch fresh parsley,
1 small bunch fresh koriander (cilantro)
lime juice (to taste)
1 tsp raw cane sugar (or brown sugar)
salt to taste
olive oil to emulsify

Roast the poblano over direct heat until the skin blackens. Put in a plastic bag to loosen the skin further. Peel and seed the pepper, and chop fine. Give the herbs a quick chop: the finer they are going into the blender, the easier the blending-process is. Ideally, the salsa is done with a few pulses in the blender. This can be achieved if the ingredients going in, are as fine as possible. Add all ingredients except the olive oil to the blender. Start to pulse and as you do, add olive oil until the salsa is smooth and runny yet still thick. Adjust seasoning.

Slice the chilled beef tongue thin, serve the fire roasted poblano salsa verde on the side. Add another easy sauce: reduce some of the braising liquid (to intensify the flavors), add cream, whisk and serve alongside the salsa verde.

Leftover beef tongue makes for great sandwiches and/or salads!

leftover beef tongue on mushroom breadpudding