Pork belly, beef cheeks, and pumpkin mash with blue cheese sauce

Dear Reader

Two posts in a weekend! I hope you’re well. Last night’s post about the dates, cheese, and prosciutto was quick.

As I type this, it is Sunday. It’s been a good one. Yesterday was gloriously warm and sunny and perfect weather for thongs, shorts, and a T-shirt. Today has been cloudy and colder. I woke up feeling a little out of sorts, but chatting with a friend and then attending online church had me in better spirits.

This week has seen much of my work thinking about the SARS-COV-2 Omicron Variant. While I won’t discuss work on the blog, personally, my hope is focused on being able to spend Christmas with my daughters, parents, and brothers in Brisbane.

Mixing pork and beef may seem odd, I know. With work being so busy, I’m relying more and more on leftover meat from the weekend to form the basis of evening meals and lunches. The slab of pork and the cheeks of beef will be more than enough to see me through the week.

Ingredients

• Pork belly
• Beef cheeks
• Master stock
• Soy sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• Pumpkin
• Sour cream
• Iodised salt
• Pepper
• Blue cheese
• Butter
• Flour
• Milk

Instructions

Pork and beef

1. Lovingly sharpen your cook’s knife (as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend Proverbs 27:17 NLT).
2. Cut the slab of pork into three parts.
3. In a metal basket insert the pork and beef.
4. Place the basket into the pressure cooker.
5. In a jug add the congealed master stock (after removing the solidified layer of fat). Liquefy the jellied stock with microwave radiation and add a good slug of soy sauce and an equally good slug of Worcestershire sauce. Mix and pour the flavour concoction over the basket of meat.
6. Cook your meat in the pressure cooker for one hour.
7. At the end of the cooking time, allow the pressure to equalise and then give the meat another 20 minutes to rest in the juices and stock. I’m told this is for maxium moistness and maximum tenderness. My aim is to be able to push my finger through the flesh.
8. Open the pressure cooker and remove the meat basket.
9. Pass the liquid through a sieve and keep it as the new master stock.
10. Keep some of the meat aside for dinner and store the rest in containers and refrigerate.

Pumpkin mash

1. With a sharp knife cut the pumpkin into pieces. I like to keep the skin on. It’s added fibre. It’s edible and with a stick blender you won’t know the mash has pumpkin skin in it.
2. Put the pumpkin in a large mixing bowl and add some salt, sugar, and oil.
3. Using your hands, pick up each piece of pumpkin and caress each surface ensuring a smooth even coating of the sweet salty oiliness. The point of the sugar is to aid caramelisation of the pumpkin flesh.
4. Transfer the pumpkin to a baking sheet and out into a 180 °C oven until you can take a sharp paring knife and penetrate the flesh with no resistance.
5. Place the pumpkin into a jug and add a good dollop of sour cream.
6. Process with a stick blender for a rough mash.
7. As optional extras you could add some chopped chives.
8. I think freshly cracked black peppercorns are a must.

Blue cheese sauce

1. Make a roux with even weights of butter and plain flour. I gently melt the butter first and then add all the flour and with a whick mix it and cook it in a saucier pan (or whatever you have) for a full three minutes.
2. Then add a little milk at a time until you get a consistency of your sauce which is a little more runny than you’d like.
3. Add in the cheese which will add a little stiffness to your creamy buttery sauce.
4. Whisk to a smooth consistency.

Plating up

1. Trowl the pumpkin mash to the bottom of a plate. You could do this with a flourish like a cook with some artistic ability. You could also just plonk the mash into the middle of the plate and flatten it a little like I do given I am artistically bereft.
2. Next add your meat. Given how soft and friable your meat will be, pinch off pieces and place them on the pumpkin mash.
3. Next take spoonfuls of sauce and from a great height drizzle sauce over the meat and pumpkin. Of course you could just pour it over. The reality is once you’ve masticated it all becomes chyme in your stomach and emerges past the pyloric valve for digestion in your small bowel where the nutrients are removed and then onto the large bowel for the recovery of the water. At that point, you know what comes next!
4. Anyway, give thanks to the Lord for the food and tuck in to this good tucker.

Final thoughts

1. How has your week been?
2. Are you worried about SARS-COV-2 Omicron Variant?
3. Have you made plans for Christmas yet?

Feel free to leave a comment. I like hearing from readers. Have a good week.

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