Day eighteen: A pretty plate of pale pink pork

Posted on | February 1, 2010

Alliteration. I know. But it so works, don’t you think?

So there I was, with a mess of pork and cabbage and boiled potatoes and I had to make a plate out of it.

Let me tell you all about it.

What do you call a pawn shop owned by a pig?
~ Ham hocks!

Today was a pork extravaganza day. You think I am kidding? Well, today we:

1. Cooked off a pork roast we had been brining since yesterday. To cook off my roast, I browned it on both sides, then popped it into the oven to finish. Once it was done cooking (and sitting; always got to let the meat sit), I sliced it, at an angle, fairly thinly.
2. Cooked a piece of pork belly. The fat side was scored and covered in a dry rub. It, too, was browned in a saute pan (fat side down), then finished in the oven. And, it, too, was sliced once it had done resting. But it was sliced straight down.
3. The sausages I made yesterday were also sauteed so they would get a nice, brown color. Then they were popped into a crowded oven to finish! I sliced half of one of the sausages. When I plated it, I had the uncut half at the back and the cut pieces fanning out, in a small semi-circle, in front, as if they had just fallen off the the uncut piece. I wasn’t sure it would work, but it did, so I was pleased.
4. I braised pork cheeks, long and slow, then shredded them.
5. I also heated the sauerkraut we had made yesterday.
6. We boiled potatoes which were then tossed with melted butter and fresh thyme.
7. I sliced green apples very thinly and tossed them with a squirt of lemon juice (to keep them from turning brown) and a sprinkle of black pepper.

Then I had to make up a plate.

I put a small, tall pile of sauerkraut and shredded pork cheek in the middle of the plate. I fanned three slices of the roast on one side and three slices of the belly on the other. I placed my semi-circle of sausage in the front of the plate, then flanked that with three slices per side of the green apple.

It was a lot of meat.

Matter of fact, everyone’s plate had a lot of meat.

The Chef told us how nicely cooked the meat was, then said the plates had too much meat and not enough sauerkraut on them (apparently, the sauerkraut was supposed to be the highlight of the dish with the meat as little more than a garnish, a fact none of us knew and all of us wished we had been told before we plated our food).

I told the husband I would bring some pork home to him, but I was so sick of pork that I made up two, heaping plates. The first plate, I brought to the second term students who were in the middle of studying vegetarianism (I thought they’d be especially hungry!). The second plate I left in the student lounge (this is what we usually do with excess food) for all the students to help themselves.

And so ends pork week. tomorrow, I understand we are making a risotto. This will be my fourth or fifth at school, so, big yawn. The next day, the last day of this semester, we are “dispatching lobsters.” “Dispatching” is culinary speak for killing.

It will be a lobster murderfest.

How does a mama pig put her piglets to sleep?
~ She reads them pig tales!

And into the classroom I went. In the break between production and lecture, most of the other students went outside to smoke. One or two ran across the street for junk food. Mama wandered the classroom, eating apples and pork cheek. And me? I ate the peanut butter and raspberry jam on bagel sandwich I had made that morning.

I rarely make food to bring to school. I always have a bottle of water on me, sure, but I never packed any food. See, in the first and second term, there usually was way too much food to go around, so I could always count on something to munch. But in the third term, where we only cook to completion, at most, two days a week, I started bringing a granola bar everyday.

Then, last week, I read the ingredient lists for granola bars. At worst, it was a chemical playground. At best, it was where sugars hid under the name “fruit concentrate” (if it ends in concentrate, it is a sugar).

Hence the bagel.

Today, was more review of work we had covered to-date (remember, the semester ends in two days) and a wine nosing.

The wine was interesting: Chef Pigtails had put out all sorts of scents for us, from tea and chocolate to blackberries and candied ginger and even grass so we could smell the real thing, then smell the wine to try to identify what we were smelling.

Interesting stuff, but my poor nose only seemed able to identify two or, at most, three scents per wine before it wore out.

Clearly I’ll need to further investigate on my own!

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