Tag: jerk pork

Categories
Recipe Shed

The Recipe Shed – Spices – Jerk Pork

Love my spices. Hooked from the first curry I had at the Kashmir in Bradford age 15 (go round the corner from the main road, there’s a doorway leading down a flight of stairs. Formica tables, tin plates. Superb food).

I’ve done a few curries on the site already but a couple of weeks ago I was challenged to branch out.  Move away from Indian food and try something different.  The 2 Thai curries I made were excellent, then a fantastic Jambalaya (needed more salt, I forgot to salt the chicken when I pressure-cooked it).  This week, going for…

Jerk Pork.

To feed 6 people…

Ingredients:

  • 3 lb. of boneless pork – whatever cut takes your fancy, nothing too fatty.
  • 6 sliced scotch bonnet peppers.  Or a couple of Dorset Naga if you’re feeling brave/suicidal!
  • 2 Tbsp. thyme
  • 2 Tbsp. ground allspice
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 3 Medium onions
  • 2 Tbsp. sugar
  • 2 Tbsp. salt
  • 2 Tsp. ground black pepper
  • 125ml olive oil
  • 125ml light soy sauce
  • Juice of one lime
  • 250ml orange juice (Or, in today’s case, apple juice. Guess which muppet forgot to check the fridge?)
  • 250ml white wine vinegar (we used a mix of white wine and cider vinegar. Guess who ran out?)
  • 1 Tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 Tsp nutmeg
  • 1 Tsp ginger (or more if you’re using fresh)

Preparation

  • Roughly chop the onions, garlic and peppers
  • Blend all of the ingredients (excluding the pork) in a blender to make the jerk sauce.
  • Cut the pork up in to smaller pieces.
  • Use a fork to poke some holes in the pork pieces.
  • Rub the sauce in to the meat, saving some for basting and dipping later.
  • Leave the pork in the fridge to marinade overnight.
We’ve done 2 batches here – one with the chillies, one without.  One for kids, one for grown-ups.  We’ve used leg of pork here, so there’s going to be some fantastic crackling come the end of cooking.  Mmmmm.  Jerk crackling.  Wow.  My whole mouth just filled with saliva.

Cooking

  1. Place the marinated pork on a baking tray lined with foil, cover with a loose sheet of foil.  Bake at 180C for an hour then uncover and cook for 45 minutes-1 hour.  You’re aiming for brown on the outside, soft and tender in the middle.  And try to finish off skin-side up if you’ve got skin, then it’ll crackle nicely under the grill.  Especially if you jack the heat right up for the last 10 minutes.

Serving

Pile onto a large plate and serve with bread rolls, salad, rice and beans, whatever takes your fancy!  If there’s any jerk sauce left over, you can use it as a dip.

Now amble over to the Recipe Shed and see what other spicy delights are being cooked up this week.