52 Week Challenge - Week 1 - Pork Stew

No Flavour, No Colour 

First of all, thanks for dropping by and reading this poor boy cooking/baking stuff to fill up his weekends. Well, if you asked why are you doing such a thing? I guess I can say it's a way to get out from the busy weekdays of work and stepping into the kitchen where I feel quite comfortable and somewhat relaxing instead of crunching numbers. It's somewhat my safe space to try new recipes and mess things up at the same time feeding my unsuspecting family/friends with Russian roulette food (lol).

But anyways I hope I can keep this up for 52 weeks, it's gonna be an interesting ride.

Week 1 : Pork Stew (disclaimer!! Not much photos cause I forgot to take the process of making, so thanks Google for the stock photos. #loser)

So the rule of thumb in this recipe is,  no colour, no flavour 

(said by the teacher himself Gordan Ramsay)

Yeap, when you're doing a stew you always want to trap the flavours in the meat and keep it moist inside when you're gonna stew, this is achieved by searing them flavours in.

What I usually like to do, especially for stews is cut my meats thick probably like 1 inch to 2 inch maybe something like the below. I used pork collar for stews where there's a lot of marbling of fat to meat ratio not too bad and it gets super tender and awesome when you're eating it.

It is usually a cheaper option in Singapore than beef and there's an awesome place where I get it from (Foodie Market).

Probably something like this (Stock Photo)

Pork Collar for reference (Stock Photo), look at dem marbles :O 

Yeap's so searing is really important, I would usually cut them into the portions that I need and after which I would wash it the first time to remove the excess blood and smell my meat (lol) if there's an unpleasant smell or if there's too strong of a "pork smell" if there is I would run it through some apple cider to remove the smell and at the same time it acts as a good tenderizer. 

After that I would strain it and let it dry for a bit before I work on the seasoning, I'm usually quite simple with my seasoning which is salt, black pepper and some fennel seeds, you can crush them in a mortar and pestle not too fine but coarse enough. The simple ratio would be (Pepper.Salt.Fennel),(3.1.0.5). So get your hands dirty and massage that pig chunks, after that add some flour to coat the chunks till you get a nice dusty porky, if you cant reach that dusty texture like below as long as it's coated it's fine.

For dummies who don't know what's floured meat (Stock Photo)

Now you can fry it up in a large pan to get some good colour

Seared pork, well something like this colour but on all 4 sides

So by now my pan would have all the oils and little bits from the searing, well I would usually keep them when I'm gonna fry up my supporting ingredients (Root vegetables), usually, the ratio for me would be (3.2.1/1/.5) Potatoes,Onions,Carrots/Celery/Brussel Sprouts. All these guys are essential to make any stew. :)

Cut them thick you don't really need to keep them in unison just chop them like about the same size as your pork  (except the Brussel sprouts keep them whole remember to remove any ugly spots on it) up like you were drunk and you wanna get it done ASAP,

You got this bro (Stock Photo)

So once you're done chopping (I hope you prepared it in advance), add them into the oils and whatnot from the pork BUT NOT THE POTATOES/BRUSSELL SPROUTS., the same principle applies, No Colour, No Flavour. So let it brown a bit not burn.

Once you got some colour, throw in your meats and now the fun beings, once all the ingredients are in the pot, add your secret ingredient (Stout!). Ratios would be probably (2:1) (Meat: Stout). Now add in some stock, in this case, I used chicken stock (about the same amount as your Stout) stir it all together and throw in a couple of bay leaves, if the colour isn't dark enough add a bit of dark soya sauce to draw out the colour.

Let it stew (low fire/simmering) for about 1.5 hours you may need to remove some oils that float to the top for me I usually find it too much of natural oils from the pork or till your pork is starting to be fork-tender, you may find the stew to a bit bitter in the initial stage as the stout takes time to evaporate but as the saying goes time heals all wounds, so give it some time and allow the stew to work it's magic.

Once you're there add in your potatoes and Brussell sprouts for about 30mins. After which you'll add in some flour-water mixture to thicken the stew to the desired consistency of your choice preferably not a SAUCE consistency but maybe like a nice soup texture would do fine.

And presto you're done for the day, give yourself a pat on the back you'll be on your merry way to having a hearty stew that would keep you wanting for more.

Now the end result - Simple but so so complex and filled with so much flavour

Atas shot lol.

If you have come this far, thanks for reading up on my descriptive journey. 

Maybe one day we will look back on this 1st post and be like damn this dude likes to write a lot crap last time and now he is just posting pics of his food, lol. 

Pork Stew Recipe

Pork Collar 500g

Yellow Onion 2

Potatoes (Waxy ones) 3 peeled

Carrot 1

Celery 1

Brussel Sprouts 100g

Bay Leaf 2 - 3

Stout 250ml

Chicken Stock 250ml or enough to cover the pot (with all the ingredients)

1. Prepare all ingredients into 1 inch chunks, root vegetables can be chopped same size or as long as its thick (but not the Brussel sprouts)

2. Coat the pork chunks with grounded black pepper/salt/fennel seeds and flour

3. Sear it till its golden brown on all ends

4. Set aside and then fry your vegetables (EXCEPT POTATOES & BRUSSELS SPROUTS) in the same oil/bits as the pork till slight brown

5. Reintroduce the pork back into the pot of vegetables, add stock and stout and throw in the bay leaves, simmer for 1.5 hours or until pork slightly fork-tender.

6. Add in your potatoes and Brussel sprouts and let it cook for 30minutes or till the potatoes are slightly tender.

7. Add flour-water mixture to the stew to get a nice soup consistency, once it's reached you're good to serve.