The reason I bring them up is that we do love to travel, and during the summer our lovely neighbors take care of our chicken (paid in eggs!) when we're away. They also help us out in so many other ways too that every once in a while we like to treat them to a nice dinner. This time we started with french onion soup (recipe coming later), port wine slowly braised pork cheeks and risotto, and tarte tatin for dessert (we'll do another to get the photo and then you'll get the recipe ;) ).
If you haven't yet cooked pork cheeks, don't be scared! They are super since they are very cheap, especially compared to value. The only thing you have to remember is to cook them long! They have fat in them and they are not nice to eat if the fat hasn't melted. I've had some too little cooked at a restaurant and it's not nice. So as long as you remember to cook them until very ripe, you're home free.
The photo is not much, as we didn't plate this time, and we were all SO hungry. I guess the photo still gives you two of the most important things: the ripeness of the cheeks and the consistency of the risotto.
The risotto is perfect consistency in this photo. Remember that. It's important. For years now I've taken my perfect risotto recipe from "Basta!" cook book by Saku Tuominen (Finnish only, I think). Saku has lived in Italy for many years and he has simply the best recipes; I have all three of his cook books. Risotto is actually really simple to make, as long as you remember few key things:
- Cook it slowly, add stock or broth very slowly.
- Don't let it dry out at any point.
- Don't overcook the rice.
- Use actual risotto rice.
- Do not add cream.
With that said, just try it! I've failed miserably a few times, I still do if I'm not paying attention. But mostly I succeed and it's goooooooood!
Braised pork cheeks
2-4 pork cheeks per person (I've used about 1,2 kg for this recipe, so adjust per your kg)
1 dl tomato pure
2 red onions
2 tbsp bell pepper powder
4 dl port wine (or red wine)
salt and pepper
Clean up the cheeks of the excessive connective tissue and fat. Cut onion in large rings or large dices. Put cheeks in an oven dish and add all of the other indegrients. Let braise in 120 C oven for at least 4 hours; we did 6 hours and they were really nice, not dry at all.
Perfect risotto (serves 4-6)
6 shallots
1 l premium quality vegetable stock
100 g butter
350 g risotto rice (e.g. Carnaroli or Arborio)
1 dl white wine
100 g grated parmesan
olive oil
salt and black pepper
First, dice shallots. Sauté them in good amount of olive oil in fairly large pan. Add risotto rice, sauté until it becomes a bit translucent. Be careful, I've burnt my rice doing this many times...
Combine stock and wine. Keep risotto on very low and keep adding the liquid in small amounts at a time (about 1 dl). You have to keep an eye on it! But as long as you do, and add the liquid slowly, you have no problems. You should have added all of the liquid during some 20-40 minutes, depending on how low heat you keep the risotto. I like to take 40 minutes. Once ready ie. al dente to your taste - taste to know! - turn off heat, add butter and parmesan and salt and black pepper to taste. Remember! The diners wait for the risotto, risotto waits no one - i.e. serve immidiately when ready.
Note: If you want to, you can use more wine (then use less stock, you should have 1,1 litres combined). This will give your risotto more acidity. I do this at times.
This time I served with roasted cauliflower and broccoli (simply just cut on put in an oven dish; sprinkle salt, pepper and olive oil and roast in 220 C ~15 minutes). It went okay with the dish, but did not add anything so special (in my opinion).
I'm glad to hear your thoughts if you do try this dish out!
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