Guest Post from Across the Pond: Pattesons Glass' Pork Rillettes

Apparently my foodie vibes must have been reaching across the miles, because as I spent my weekend musing over this blog becoming a collection of voices, I returned to work on Monday to find an e-mail from Pattesons Glass Ltd, a glass bottle and jar company in Grimsby, England.  They've enjoyed reading our blog, and wanted to offer up one of their recipes to share with our members.  While their Pork Rillettes recipe isn't exactly Spring produce heavy, it's the perfect way to put your garden herbs to good use in a bouquet garni as the base for this dish.  Still have lots of parsley leftover from last week or have you been drying your Crop Share herbs?  Then now is their time to shine.  Just whatever you do, don't tell Penny Pig we've got a pork recipe up on the blog, she might start to wonder why I feed her so many strawberries!

So from some fellow foodies across the pond, I give you their recipe for traditional French rillettes (if you need help with the metric conversions, hop on over to http://www.metric-conversions.org/ to compute it quickly and easily)...

Pork Rillettes

Like all charcuterie, rillettes (pronounced ree-yettes) were originally a way of preserving the cornucopia of fatty goodness yielded by the slaughter of a pig. Stored in earthenware crocks or in glass jars and sealed with a lid of pork fat, they would keep for months. This recipe is much lower in fat and consequently has a little less staying power, but the rillettes will keep well in the fridge for at least a week, and will benefit from a few days’ maturation before you break open the jar.

1.25kg pork belly or shoulder, skin removed but bones left in, cut into chunks

4 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly crushed

1 bouquet garni

3 bay leaves

6 cloves

50ml vermouth

500ml water

1tsp ground mace

Salt and pepper

Place the pork, garlic, bouquet garni, bay leaves, vermouth and water in an ovenproof, lidded dish. Cook at about 100°C for four hours, turning the meat a few times so it doesn’t become too brown, until it falls away from the bones. Remove from the pan and allow to cool slightly. Discard the bay leaves, cloves, bouquet garni, bones and any obvious pieces of cartilage. Drain the pork and place the liquid in a small bowl over ice or in the fridge to chill.

Using two forks, gently shred the meat, allowing it to retain its natural grain. Remove the reserved liquid from the fridge and carefully lift off the solidified fat. Mix the jellied stock that remains with the pork, season to taste with mace, salt and pepper and place in a sterilised 580ml clip-top jar.

Melt the reserved pork fat and pour over the rillettes before sealing the jar and refrigerating until needed.

Rillettes are delicious served cold or at room temperature as a starter, the centrepiece of a light lunch or for a picnic. All that’s needed to accompany the rillettes are some slices of warm baguette, a few cherry tomatoes and some cornichons or pickled onions.

View the original recipe on Pattesons Glass' recipe blog at http://www.jarsandbottles-store.co.uk/blog/recipes/pork-rillettes/ and be sure to check out some of their other great recipes, like their divine looking Salsa Verde!

Thanks very much to Pattesons Glass to reaching out to us with their recipe, it's great to have you at our communal table!