A CHEEKY CHOICE FOR DINNER

Cheeks are on the menu today. Pork cheeks, a cut of meat that I learned to love only a few years ago. That was on a visit to Sierra de Aracena (Andalusia, southwestern Spain), where I was meeting, up close and personal, ibérico breed pigs and the people who produce superb ham from them. (From this region come the famous Jabugo hams.)

At dinner the night before my visit to the pig habitat, I had a chance to sample fresh ibérico pork, the raw material for ham. Cuts with names like “secret,” “feather” and “prize” were grilled over smoldering oak coals and served medium-rare. Marbled like prime beef, the meat was tender and juicy. But what I enjoyed most were the tender carrilladas, pork cheeks braised in a wine sauce.

Braised pork cheeks in a wine sauce with prunes.

Since then, I buy pork cheeks—both ibérico and regular pork—when I find them at a local supermarket and stash them in the freezer, ready for when I want an easy, slow-cooked meal.

Pork cheeks are collops of muscle meat that need slow cooking to become tender. Spanish cooks suggest using the pressure cooker, but I like to braise them in a wine sauce. After about 90 minutes, they are fork-tender. The savory sauce practically begs for mashed potatoes or chunks of bread. By the way, I’ve learned that kids really like pork cheeks, at least if you don’t get too graphic about where the meat comes from.

Serve mashed potatoes with the pork cheeks to soak up the delicious gravy. Chard is a good side.

Pork Cheeks with Wine Sauce and Prunes
Carrilladas de Cerdo en Salsa

The size of pork cheeks varies considerably (4 to 6 ounces each). Allow two per person, depending on size. Very large ones can be cut in half.  I cooked four (1 pound 2 ounces), to serve two persons. The meat shrinks considerably during braising. Beef or veal cheeks can be prepared in the same manner, but, being larger, they will require longer cooking.

Cut away thin layer of fat.

Unless the butcher has already done it, you will need to remove the membrane of fat that covers one side of the piece of meat. Use the tip of a knife to lift and cut it free.

Serves 2.

4 pork cheeks
Salt and pepper
Flour
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 carrot, diced (1 cup)
1 onion, chopped (1 cup)
1/3 cup chopped green pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped
½ cup peeled and chopped tomato
5 prunes
½ cup white wine
1 cup water or meat stock
¼ teaspoon powdered ginger
Pinch of ground cloves
1 bay leaf
1 slice lemon
6 small onions (optional)
1 teaspoon Sherry vinegar
Chopped parsley to serve

Sprinkle the pieces of meat with salt and pepper. Dust them lightly with flour. Heat the oil in a pan and brown the pieces of meat on both sides. Remove them from the pan. Add the diced carrot, onion, green pepper and garlic to the pan and sauté until onion begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped tomato and sauté until liquid is cooked off.

Wine, prunes and chopped carrots cook with the meat.

Return the meat to the pan. Add one of the prunes, quartered, the wine, water, ginger, cloves, bay leaf and lemon. Add small onions, if using. Add about ½ teaspoon salt (unless you have used meat stock, in which case salt is probably not needed).

Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cover the pan. Cook the pork cheeks 45 minutes. Turn them and remove the small, whole onions if you have used them. Cook the meat 40 to 45 minutes longer, or until it is fork-tender.

Remove and discard the lemon and bay leaf. Remove the cheeks to a plate and keep them warm with a few bits of diced carrots for garnish. Place the remaining vegetables and liquid in a blender with the vinegar. Blend to make a smooth sauce.

Return the meat, sauce, cooked onions and remaining prunes to the pan. Simmer 10 minutes. Serve sprinkled with a few diced carrots and chopped parsley.

Meat is so tender you probably don't need a knife.

Another recipe for pork cheeks is here.

LET THE GRILLING SEASON BEGIN!

I missed the “official opening” of the grilling season (Memorial Day is not a holiday in Spain), so I’m opening the season this week, celebrating the arrival of a new (used) charcoal/wood grill. 

Ben grills ibérico pork, asparagus, potatoes and mushrooms over charcoal.

At the supermarket I got a big hunk of Ibérico pork, fresh asparagus and a bag of charcoal. I had on hand onions and potatoes newly dug from the garden. To complete the menu I made a two-bean salad with green beans from the garden and a jar of kidney beans. 

Ibérico pork is raised to make the famed Ibérico hams and cured shoulders. Some of the other cuts are used for various kinds of sausages (chorizo, morcilla, salchichón, lomo, morcón). The remainder is marketed as fresh pork.

Ibérico pork, fresh and cured, comes from animals of the Ibérico breed.  What distinguishes this breed from regular porkers (such as Large White, Landrace and Duroc) is that they are very slow to mature, never reaching the size of hogs destined to be pork chops. The Ibérico breed, as it adapted to its habitat, acquired the unique characteristic of storing fat infiltrated in the flesh. The marbled meat is what makes it so juicy, the perfect meat for grilling.

The cut I bought was the presa, a thick, boneless slab from the shoulder, weighing about 1 ½ pounds. Even though this is not de bellota—acorn finished—it is naturally marbled with fat. It stays juicy and tender, so doesn’t need brining.

Cut of ibérico pork called presa, rubbed with garlic and herbs.

I chose to give the piece of meat a rub of chopped garlic, thyme, rosemary, sage, salt and a spoonful of vinegar and allow it to set at room temperature for one hour.

Son Ben was the grill master—he’s had lots of experience. We tucked foil-wrapped onions into the embers, placed asparagus, par-boiled potatoes and mushrooms right on the grill with the meat.

Ready to flip the meat? Note foil-wrapped whole onions are roasted in the embers under the grill.

Smoke, the added flavor. Next time, we'll try an olive-wood fire instead of using charcoal.

Let meat set 5 minutes before carving.

Serve ibérico pork medium rare, like beef. We decided this was a little too bloody. After carving off the ends, we put it back on the grill for another few minutes.

Salad on the side--green beans from the garden, red kidney beans, cherry tomatoes, chopped onions with an olive oil-yogurt dressing.

Some sauces that would go nicely with the pork and potatoes: Fig Salsa, Quince Sauce, Green Chile Sauce.

Fresh ibérico pork cuts are available in the US from http://www.wagshalsimports.com/ and  http://www.tienda.com/food/iberico-meat.html .

THE JUICIEST PORK EVER

Juicy slices of Ibérico pork, larded with herbs and spices.

I was needing to replenish my supply of Ann Larson’s luxurious cardomom-scented, olive-oil-based body lotion (http://www.lujos.co.uk/ ) and, for that matter, some of her extra virgin olive oil too. So, in company of Lars Kronmark, a chef-instructor at the Culinary Institute of America, St. Helena, California, who was visiting southern Spain, I made a trek to Ann and husband Kenton’s mountain village, Yunquera.

Lars teaches about charcuterie at the CIA, so he was interested in visiting a producer of Ibérico pork. Ann took us to the guy where she buys her Ibérico ham, Miguel Merino Ruiz of Ibéricos Yunquera https://sites.google.com/site/ibericosmerino. Miguel produces Ibérico ham, sausages and fresh pork from his own pigs.

Miguel Merino shows us a loin of Ibérico pork.

Ibérico pork, fresh and cured, comes from animals of the Ibérico breed.  What distinguishes this breed from regular porkers (such as Large White, Landrace and Duroc) is that they are very slow to mature, never reaching the size of hogs destined to be pork chops. The Ibérico breed, as it adapted to its habitat, acquired the unique characteristic of storing fat infiltrated in the flesh. The marbled meat is what makes it so juicy.

The pigs that Miguel Merino raises are Ibérico breed—but not finished on bellotas, acorns, which distinguishes the very finest Ibérico hams. These pigs are grain-fed. But, because they are Ibérico breed, they still have the intense marbling that makes the meat so fabulous.

The pluma, from the side of the loin.

Fresh Ibérico pork meat comes in a variety of cuts with curious names like secreto, pluma, presa—“secret,” “feather” and “prize”. Miguel, the pork butcher, also makes Ibérico sausages and some vacuum-packed ready-to-serve meats such as cerdo mechado, a herb-inflected pot roast of pork shoulder that can be served hot or cold.

I bought a hunk of fresh Ibérico pork shoulder to cook at home, using an Andalusian recipe for carne mechado. I also bought some pluma—a thin cut from the side of the loin, perfect for the grill—to stash in the freezer.

Pork shoulder, marbled with fat.

Yunquera is situated in the Sierra de las Nieves, the "snow mountains," and, true to form, it had snowed the previous day, covering the mountain tops with white. We all went to lunch at a restaurant in Yunquera, where a gorgeous olive-wood fire warmed the room, and ate pluma “steaks,” grilled medium-rare. Ibérico pork is more like really good beef, juicy, mouth-filling, than it is like pork. Lars described it as “sweet.” 

Grilled pluma, or "feather."

Fresh ibérico pork cuts are available in the US from http://www.wagshalsimports.com/ 

Carne de Cerdo Mechado
Larded Pork Pot Roast

Mechar means to “lard” a piece of meat. In the French manner, a larding needle is used to thread a piece of fat through a cut of meat. The fat helps keep the meat juicy while cooking. In the Spanish home kitchen, I watched village cooks “lard” a pot roast by cutting slits in the meat and inserting strips of salt pork with spices and herbs.

If using Ibérico pork, the natural marbling provides the juiciness. Instead, the pot roast is “larded” with flavor—garlic, spices and herbs. If you are not using Ibérico pork, you may wish to use strips of salt pork to lard the meat, so it stays juicy as it cooks.

Use a boneless blade roast, Boston butt or picnic ham in this recipe. Shoulder roasts have a lot of connective tissue that cooks up tender with slow cooking.

Slices of pork with sauce.

2 pounds boneless shoulder pork roast
1 clove
10 peppercorns
1 teaspoon coarse salt
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Sprigs of fresh thyme
2 teaspoons olive oil
Strips of salt pork (optional)
2 tablespoons olive oil or pork lard
½ cup Sherry or white wine
¾ cup stock or water
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 onion, quartered
4 carrots, halved
1 head garlic, char-roasted (see below)
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper

In a mortar, crush the clove and peppercorns. Add the salt, garlic, parsley and a few thyme leaves. Crush to a paste. Mix with 2 teaspoons oil.

With a sharp knife cut deep gashes into the piece of meat. Use the knife blade or fingers to push some of the paste into the slits. If using, plug the slits with  strips of salt pork. Continue, spacing the gashes regularly on the meat’s surface. Tie the meat with twine, giving it a good shape.

Heat the oil or lard in a pan big enough to hold the piece of meat. Brown the meat, very slowly, on all sides. Add the onion, carrot, tomatoes, and roasted garlic cloves. Put in the bay leaf, a sprig of thyme, Sherry and stock. Cook the meat very slowly until fork-tender, about 1 ½ hours.

Remove the meat to a cutting board.  Discard the string, and slice the meat. Sieve the sauce, pressing on the solids, and spoon the sauce over the meat.

Char-roasted head of garlic.

To roast a whole head of garlic: Spear the head of garlic on a fork or grasp  it with tongs and hold over a gas flame (or put under the broiler), turning, until it is charred. Peel the garlic cloves, rinse in running water and add them to the stew.

Pork pot roast with vegetables.