Foray Into Porky Heaven

Enticed by the circular from Kings Supermarket, I could not help myself when I bought some berkshire pork. Not that they wrote a descriptor that caused salivation. The mere words "berkshire pork" is all I needed to see. And what a lovely cut of meat (center cut pork chop) in person. The same thing happens when their circular has wagyu beef in it. Needless to say, I try not to go there too often.

Thankfully, this premium pork was worthy of it's hefty price tag. While trimming a bit of the excess fat away (I just can't bear to have it there...sorry), it felt wonderful as the fat effortlessly sheered away. Alas, preparing the chop became disturbing. You'd think I'd be disturbed just as a veg, but that's never happened. I could degut a fish like it were paper. However, in handling this cut of pork, my hands became oh so slightly bloody, as in a smear here and there, but it was incredibly vibrant red and a smidge viscous. Quite frankly, it looked like I had cut myself and were exuding blood drip by drip. The fact that this was once a little piggy hit home like never before. As I flipped the chop around on the wooden board, the thunk of the rib against the wood became painful to my ears as the hollow note struck me straight to the soul. At least with factory farming, having it for dinner is probably the best thing to alleviate the tortured creature. Oh, I didn't just say that, did I? But with berkshire pork, those oinkers are of superior pedigree and pampered...maybe even massaged like kobe beef for all I know. It got the good life...cut short. After such a sacrifice for the dinner plate, I better not mess this dish up...

Clearly, I was blinded by "berkshire" in front of pork. I wonder whether the same thing occurs in front of "Hathaway" when I invest...Anyhow, I'm not very good at cooking up hunks of meat like steak and well...pork chops. My parents don't like it medium rare so I usually end up cooking them to death. The meat is usually edible because I'm saved by the fact I used premium cuts like filet mignon so they're still good as long as they're not charred. So what the hell am I going to do this pork chop???

Brine it. Yes! That's it. Having doing brining before, I realized that it kept meat moist and tender. That should help me not mess up too badly. So what's in the brine? Water, salt, sugar, juniper berries, fresh thyme, bay leaves and black peppercorns. The chops bathed in the brine for 2 days. That should do it. After that, I just threw them into my cast iron pan and hoped for the best. It turned out okay! Hooray! First off, my parents though this berkshire stuff really did taste better than "normal" pork. Apparently, I did not overcook it because while the flesh was nicely firm, it was not dry. Tastewise, they found it perfectly salted with a right amoutn of herb, though they didn't care for the cracked peppercorn as it was too difficult to eat. A finer grind of pepper would have been more ideal for them.


As the side vegetable matter, I cooked up Ginger Chickpeas in Spicy Tomato Gravy from Judith Finlayson's 150 Best Slow Cooker Recipes. It was surprisingly good though much too salty. I suspect my canned tomatoes were on the salty side so next time I'll cut the salt in half unless I use fresh tomatoes (both versions of tomatoes are listed as acceptable). Though it's quite simple in its ingredients list and even simpler to make being cooked in the crockpot, it was tasty. It really is on the spicy side from all the fresh ginger no doubt. My parents liked it. Hooray!

For dessert, we had Baba au Rhum (Rum Cake) from the Sopranos cookbook. It wasn't bad, though my mom complained its texture was too rough. It's surprisingly rough as if cornmeal were added, but I'm not sure why it was like that unless I messed up. My friends liked it, but I thought it was okay. I found it more sweet than rum flavoured which was disappointing. Being a yeast-based cake, I felt as if I were eating sugar-soaked bread...but better. ;) I'd have to say...it's a curious cake. I may try and find a different/better recipe or learn how to make it properly if that's the case.