Thursday, November 19, 2009

Pork with fennel seeds and lemon

I prepare this dish when I have people for supper or lunch at short notice – you need the patience to queue at the butchers and let the slices of Presa spend no more than 2 hours in the marinade. Note that you should never crush garlic for a marinade. As soon as you BBQ or a la plancha the meat – the crushed garlic will be the first thing to burn. Burnt garlic not only flavours an entire dish, it is also indigestible. This marinade requires unpeeled cloves of garlic, given a huge thump with the side of your fist or the back of a sturdy knife, until they split.

Broken/ Bruised/ Bashed Garlic Cloves x 4

This marinade will do a 600-800g sliced Presa

Soy Sauce x 6 tablespoons

Lemon Rind x 1 large, finely grated

Olive Oil x 2 tbs

Fennel Seeds x 3 tsp

Parsley - very small handful - roughly chopped

Good grind of Black Pepper

Sprinkle of Crushed Chilli

Assemble all ingredients in non-metallic dish. Stir with fork. Add slices of Presa and mix. Leave for up to 2 hours.If it's a larger piece for roasting, leave for 24 + hours, turning occasionally


BBQ or grill on each side for a few minutes. It is perfectly acceptable to serve this pink – not rare – just pink. It’s at its best when pink.

This is also perfect with Chuletas de Cerdo Ibérico (pork chops).

I occasionally buy a piece of Aguja de cerdo blanco, without fat and without bone.

As far as I can make out, this cut is the spare-rib chop – without the chop.

If you marinade the aguja in the above for a day or so, turning it when you remember, then removed from marinade and discard any garlic cloves attached to the meat and seal in a very hot oven proof pan.

Pour the marinade – including the garlic cloves and a litre of Galician cider over the sealed meat. Cover tightly with foil and roast at 140 deg for about 2 hours – checking to see if you should add more cider from time to time.

This is fabulous served with Pea Puree and Warm Potato Salad with Sundried Tomatoes & Onion.

Come visit Annie B's Spanish Kitchen!


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