Pork with garlic, sage and lemon

Chef Tom and I have a couple of food heroes in common. I guess that’s why Tom fell so comfortably into running GRAZING and the philosophies that I initially developed the restaurant with. For those that haven’t been to GRAZING, the food is about simple, rustic pleasure. It’s about what we pick fresh out of the garden; nothing tricked up – just beautiful, fresh produce cooked with excellent technique. Tom shows his respect for the produce with every dish.

GRAZING was one of the leaders in buying local, promoting local and using our own garden produce. It is fantastic to see that the rest of the restaurant world has caught on and that many places are now dedicated to the concept of buying within a small radius.

Both Tom and I love Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver. They both have fabulous kitchen gardens and they cook with such respect for their ingredients.

The other night, I was watching Jamie Oliver cook pork and talk about the importance of using the whole animal. He cooked some pork neck steaks that looked so amazing that I couldn’t wait to get to the markets and buy some beautiful pork neck to reproduce his recipe.



Our meyer lemon tree is currently loaded with beautiful fragrant lemons and is conveniently under planted with sage. Our spring garlic is also ready for picking and I had all the ingredients I needed for Jamie’s recipe



The first task is to thinly slice the pork neck into steaks and then drizzle with olive oil, a couple of crushed garlic cloves, a handful of chopped sage and the zest of the lemon. I also squeezed half the lemon over the pork and then seasoned them with some salt and pepper.



You cook the steaks quickly in a hot pan. If it had been warmer, they would have been wonderful on the BBQ. You turn the steaks after only a couple of minutes. When they are ready, squeeze over the rest of the lemon and let sizzle for a moment.



Rest and then serve with jacket potatoes (with sour cream of course!)

I thought about a wine match for the pork and was originally leaning toward chardonnay. However, you have to be very careful with chardonnay and herbs. Some herbs can make chardonnay seem bitter, so I chose our beautiful little sangiovese. Oh my goodness, this was perfect. The sangiovese has beautiful acid and a cranberry character that mirrors the lemon in the pork. Also, the subtle herbaceous notes of the sangiovese work with the sage.

Jamie, I wish I could send you a bottle to enjoy. Cheers!

This article has 5 comments.

Subscribe:

• Subscribe to the RSS Feed »
• Follow us on Twitter »
• Join us on Facebook »