Back in Pot Tossery's infancy, I was telling my friend Phil about it in the beer garden (and by that I mean large patch of tarmac) of the Bell and Hare in Tottenham. He asked if I was going to just show my triumphs, or whether or not I'd include the fuck ups as well (this already sounds ominous, right?) I said I would be, as it was intended to be a document of culinary experimentation, nay, ADVENTURE, and therefore I wouldn't be attempting to ignore the disasters and pretend everything went smoothly in my kitchen. So far, despite seemingly constantly blustering into unchartered waters (just because I can, apparently) of things I've not done before and fretting about the consequences, everything has so far come out reasonably unscathed. This all sounds like I should be building up to some spectacular failure, a plate of absolute shit that's impassable as anywhere near edible. Not quite. Some slight re-adjustments were in order, and having come out the other end relatively unscathed, my initial trauma at what was originally intended as the entire purpose of the existence of this post going to pot has morphed into a kind of "shit, I've actually got something I can really write about here" state of mind.
I last left these parts stating my intentions to get to grips with bits of animals that most people would turn their nose up at (and I think I have come to the realisation that what I said back in post number three about my liking some things partly due to other people's disgust at the mere thought of eating them carries a bit more weight than I initially thought.) So think about bits I did. I didn't want to just have a demonstration of 'I bought a new cook book and cooked something from it, well done me', and herein lies the first error on my behalf. When effectively making up dishes, it's kind of advisable not to charge in and plan to use things which you've never eaten, let alone cooked with. Like pig's trotters.
I was originally intending something based upon Fergus Henderson's Pigs Trotter Stuffed With Potato, served with what turned out to be a fairly rigorous bastardisation of Nigel Slater's Soup-stew of Beans and Cavalo Nero from Tender Vol. I. Instead I was going to stuff the trotter with a stuffing made from liver, anchovies, sage and garlic. It would probably go really well with mash, or some form of purée, but I really can't stand root vegetables made to resemble a liquid more than a solid, so I went for beans instead given how versatile they are and how well they can stand up to other flavours. Sorted. Except for my underestimation of the pig's trotter, or in fact my overestimation of how much meat there might be on one. I'm sure I remember on Masterchef: The Professionals when the contestants had to prepare one there was enough. As it turns out, I was thinking of a trotter and hock in one. Sails deflated. So in the end I just got a piece of pork loin and thought "well there goes the whole purpose and reason behind this exercise" (other than to feed myself, that is). In actual fact I think it would work better with a piece of belly rather than loin. Belly would lend itself better to spreading the stuffing across the underside and rolling, and therefore being more similar in shape to the original intention of trotters.
So anyway, the recipe. As I will say later, this could use a few tweaks, and in doing so could end up being really good. It could also use some tweaks in the sense of actually knowing all the proper quantities, but as I almost entirely winged this, it's somewhat vague in places, so do bear with me. At least my quantities will be more descriptive than a 'cup'. This is how I made it, imperfections and all.
One piece of pork loin. As much as you feel you can eat.
About a square inch and a half of liver. Ideally pig's liver I suppose, but I used lamb's and it was fine.
4 anchovy fillets (3 would probably be better, as the flavour was probably a bit too dominant at times)
3 large cloves of garlic
5 sage leaves
Pork fat, enough to wrap around the meat. Caul fat would be ideal, I used a really thin piece of back fat as it was all I could get hold of. And it was fine.
60g dried borlotti beans (50g is probably enough)
Half a large white onion (or even a whole small one)
Half a large carrot (ditto)
2 bay leaves
Olive oil
3 handfuls of kale
Approximately 500ml liquid (water, stock, liquor from soaking the beans, or any combination of the three)
1 rasher of bacon (pancetta, or your own home cured bacon would be superb)
Salt and pepper
Soak the beans in plenty of cold water overnight. You could use tinned though, in which case you don't need to. Drain and rinse the beans and place in a large pan and cover with fresh, cold water. Don't add any salt at this stage, as it will prevent the beans from softening. Bring to the boil and skim any foam from the surface. Add the bay leaves and a splash of oil (about a tablespoon or so) and boil for around 45 minutes, or until they are just softening.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6. Meanwhile, finely chop the liver and anchovies and mix together with two crushed cloves of garlic, the sage leaves, also finely chopped, and some ground black pepper. Cut a pocket down the middle of the pork loin, as if you were separating it into steaks but not cutting all the way through. Spread the liver/anchovies mix into the pocket and wrap the meat in the fat. It doesn't matter how neatly you do this - if you're using caul fat then it should all pretty much melt away, if you're using back fat like I did, you'll remove it later.
Heat a splash of olive oil in a pan and get it really hot. Sear the fat wrapped meat on all sides until brown but not burnt. This is to seal the fat so that it keeps the meat away from direct heat, and holds the stuffing inside. Transfer to the oven and cook for about 15 minutes. In totally winging this, I didn't actually time how long mine was in the oven. It was around 20 minutes I think, and it was just slightly over done.
Drain the beans, reserving the liquor if you will be using some of it later. Dice the onion, carrot and other clove of garlic and sweat gently in a pan until soft. Chop the bacon/pancetta and add to the pan and fry until coloured and fat has been released. Add the beans, kale and stock/water/bean liquor and, turning the heat up, cook until the beans are properly soft and almost all the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt if needed, and lots of ground black pepper. The meat should be ready whilst you're doing this, so take it out of the oven and let it rest for as long as you can before removing the fat casing (if need be).
Slice the pork and serve on top of the beans and kale.
Usually you'd get step by step pictorial evidence, but in this case there's only one, just before I wolfed the whole lot down. As I said, it needs some tweaking. It could use slightly less anchovy, as their flavour managed to become prevalent over the other stuffing ingredients. The beans and kale really benefits from having an awful lot of pepper added at the end (what I suspect a certain redhead would refer to as a 'fuckton'). I'm usually livid at myself if I ever overcook meat, but in this instance I'm willing to give myself a bit of leeway, given that I didn't really know what I was doing, and I didn't want to remove the fat only to have to return it to the oven. I tried the old stick-a-skewer-in-and-see-what-colour-the-juices-run thing, but even though the meat was cooked it ran bright red because of the liver inside. I think cooking meat whilst wrapped in fat for protection is definitely the way forward (or at least one of them). If I'd taken it out of the oven a few minutes earlier it would have been spot on and moist as anything. Above all else, though, this was actually really damn tasty.
And the trotter made a really good looking stock, too.
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