I didn’t grow up eating pork, except in the form of bacon, because we were very much a beef and lamb household. I never truly appreciated it until I came to live in England, when I learned about heritage breeds and the sweet, fatty joy of pork belly. You need really good pork, so it’s not something I ever buy from the supermarket. The animals should have been reared outside, and tamworth or middle white are my favourite breeds. There is nothing worse than a bad pork chop.
Danish roast pork with pickled prunes and sweet cucumber (pictured top)
This was the first dish I ever ate in Scandinavia. I’d just arrived – very late – from the airport, there was a blizzard outside and this was brought on a candlelit tray by room service in my Copenhagen hotel. What an introduction.
Prep 15 min
Marinate 12 hr+
Cook 2 hr
Serves 6-8
For the pickled prunes
300ml white-wine vinegar
350g sugar
1 cinnamon stick, broken
6 juniper berries, crushed
6 black peppercorns
2 cloves
400g good-quality unpitted prunes
For the cucumber salad
1 medium cucumber
Sea salt flakes and black pepper
1 tbsp rice-wine vinegar
1½ tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp chopped dill
For the pork
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
Sunflower oil
1½kg pork belly, rind scored, ideally in a diamond pattern
600ml dry white wine
Make the prunes at least a day ahead. Heat the white-wine vinegar with the sugar and spices, stirring a little to help the sugar melt. Once it has melted, boil until the liquid has reduced by one-third and is quite syrupy. Add the prunes and simmer very gently for about 10 minutes. Put the prunes in a sterilised preserving jar (wash it in boiling water and put in a low oven for 15 minutes), then pour over the syrup, cover and leave to plump up.
For the pickled cucumber, cut off and discard the ends of the cucumber, then slice it very finely: the slices should be almost transparent. Layer in a colander, sprinkle with a teaspoon and a half of salt, then mix with your hands, place a plate on top to weigh it down and set the colander over a bowl for the juices to run out into. Leave for a couple of hours. Mix the cucumber with the rest of the salad ingredients and cover until you are ready to serve. (If I’m in a hurry, I sometimes skip the salting, in which case mix the sliced cucumber with the vinegar and flavourings and serve it immediately.)
For the pork, crush the spices with some salt in a mortar. Add two tablespoons of oil, then rub this all over the pork. Cover and refrigerate for an hour, or overnight, if you can.
Heat the oven to 240C (220C fan)/475F/gas 9. Rub the skin of the pork with more oil, then season all over with salt and pepper, pressing the salt flakes into the skin. Roast skin side up in the hot oven for 30 minutes.
Pour half the white wine around the pork and turn down the oven to 190C (170C fan)/350F/gas 5. Cook the pork for a further hour and a half, pouring the rest of the wine around the joint about half an hour before the end of cooking time.
Take the pork out of the oven, cover the flesh with foil but leave the crackling uncovered so it stays crisp, and leave to rest for about 15 minutes. Carve and serve with the pickles.
Hot lightning (new potatoes with apples, pears and bacon)
We don’t really cook supper dishes as old-fashioned and northern as this any more, but hete bliksem, as this is known in its native Holland, is delicious on a cold winter evening. And who can resist such a name? Serve just as it is (though wilted savoy cabbage is delicious alongside), or with sausages or pork chops.
Prep 10 min
Cook 45 min
Serves 4
1kg small new potatoes, scrubbed but unpeeled
250g tart eating apples, such as granny smith
250g firm pears
50g butter
400g streaky bacon in one piece, cut into 2cm chunks
Sea salt flakes and black pepper
Light brown soft sugar
Leaves from 2 thyme sprigs
Halve the potatoes, or cut them into roughly 3cm chunks. Core and quarter the apples and pears, and cut lengthways into slices about 5mm at their thickest part.
Melt the butter in a heavy-based casserole, and saute the bacon and potatoes until golden all over. Add the fruit and turn it over in the buttery juices. Season and add sugar to taste and the thyme.
Cover the casserole with a lid and cook on a very low heat on top of the stove, or in an oven heated to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4, for 30 or so minutes, or until everything is tender. Shake the pan every so often to prevent everything from sticking, and add a splash of water to the mixture if it is becoming too dry.
Check the seasoning and serve.
Romanian bean, smoked bacon and soured cream soup
Look at the ingredients list for this recipe and you might think: “Beans, bacon and lettuce that turns soggy in hot stock. Big deal!” And it’s from a country whose cuisine is still not well known. But it’s one of my favourite dishes in this book. It offers a combination of flavours that we just aren’t used to – pork, beans, vinegar, soured cream and dill – and it’s rich and warming. You’ll love it.
Prep 15 min
Soak overnight
Cook 2 hr
Serves 6-8
30g butter
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
200g smoked pancetta or bacon, rind removed, then cut into large cubes
225g dried haricot beans, soaked overnight
1.7 litres chicken stock
Sea salt flakes and black pepper
1 baby gem lettuce
150g soured cream
1 tbsp white-wine vinegar
1 small bunch fresh dill, chopped
Melt the butter in a heavy-based pan and add the onion and celery. Turn the vegetables over in the butter, add a splash of water and cover the pan. Cook the vegetables on a very low heat until sweet and soft (about 15 minutes). Check from time to time to make sure the onion has enough moisture in it to prevent it burning, and add another splash of water if you need to.
Saute the pancetta or bacon in its own fat in another pan, until it is coloured all over, then add to the vegetables once they have sweated enough.
Drain the beans of their soaking water, rinse them and add to the vegetable pan. Cover with the stock, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook, partially covered, for an hour and a half to two hours, or until the beans are soft. Mash them up a little with a potato masher, just to break them down, then season well.
Shred the lettuce and add it to the soup with the soured cream and the vinegar. Reheat gently, add the dill and serve.
These recipes are edited extracts from the new edition of Roast Figs, Sugar Snow: Food to Warm the Soul, by Diana Henry, published by Aster at £22. To order a copy for £19.36, go to guardianbookshop.com
