First Barbecue of Summer

Yes - it has taken this long to have a barbecue.   We were celebrating the departure of our muslim student with a feast of pork - we have not touched it for 7 weeks!   So as Ahmed returned to the UAE for Ramadan, we marinated pork.

I learned something interesting about how to barbecue - if cooking pork ribs, boil them for 45 minutes first, then marinade.   I was shocked - but it made them much more tender than hours of marinading and grilling... I did the usual sort of marinade - tomato, soy sauce, ginger, sugar, lime juice.  Could have done with more sugar, also had some sausages, peppers and mushrooms - all very satisfactory.   And a couple of pittas, some salad and lots of candles - since by the time we got around to it it was nearly dark.  A few R&B songs in the background - really very pleasant.

My only complaint is that the heat generated cooked everything very quickly, but would have cooked a great deal more - just that we didn't need to cook more.  Somehow it was a lot more relaxed than barbecues sometimes are.   Or maybe I'm just getting better at them - like meringues, they are something I approach with a certain amount of trepidation, although the results are usually better than fine.

Pork cooked in milk

"Thou shalt not cook a kid in its mother's milke" so this recipe sounds like a Beth Din nightmare - all my Jewish antecedents would be having sharp intakes of breath - while my Irish ones would be wondering why this delicacy had never featured in their diets.   It's an Italian dish, from the north, and I guess it's part of the great European pork heritage - but cooked in milk?   That just doesn't seem right to me.   Would you have excess milk at a time when you were killing pigs (November/December)?  Not really - suggesting it doesn't have a peasant, but an urban heritage.   Chicken cooked in milk is another thing, and there are vegetables cooked in milk from Reggio Emilia.    Move to the town - have milk available all year round and you can then add pork to the repertoire.   But not, apparently, lamb or beef.   

I started making this dish from Elizabeth David's Italian Cooking, but it never works the way she says it will, so I have developed my own method, which preserves the taste, improves the appearance of the sauce and is easier.

Take a joint of pork - boneless, leg or shoulder.  Remove the skin.   Stuff  some garlic cloves and rosemary leaves into the flesh - roll up (if you want to).  Boil about a litre of milk.  Fry an onion in butter in a heavy saucepan, add about 100 grams chopped ham (any old ham) and a few fennel seeds and a chopped clove of garlic.   When the onion is soft add the pork and brown it.  When it is brown, add salt and pepper, then pour over the hot milk.  Cook on a low light, with the lid on, for an hour.   Turn the pork over and cook for a further 30 mins or so.   You will now have a joint of cooked pork and some rather grim looking watery sludge.... take the pork out, then blend the mixture in the saucepan, add some cream (you can use elderly cream for this - it doesn't need to be fresh, or sour cream, or diluted creme fraiche - NOT yoghurt!) and perhaps a little more milk to get it to a nice runny consistency, but taste it - you don't want it to become insipid!

When the pork is cool, cut into slices and pour the sauce over - when the sauce cools completely it becomes jellified - so if you don't like that, serve it sooner!  It can be eaten hot or cold, and is always delicious.

A good dish for a dinner party/buffet etc.