Western Morning News (Saturday)
BBQ PORK CHOP WITH CHARCOAL HERB BUTTER
Make up your compound butter in advance, I went for a tsp each of fresh rosemary and thyme, a pinch of sea salt and pepper in 50g of butter, I mixed it thoroughly, wrapped in clingfilm in a sausage shape and then froze.
You will need a nice rind on, thick cut, bone in pork chop ideally, these were Berkshire Pork and had a lovely creamy thick layer of fat around the outside, and a nice thick skin that will make for good crackling. Simply season generously with coarse sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Place on a hot BBQ running at around 180c indirect, with the skin facing the coals, use a little smoking wood, cherry is ideal here, and leave, turning occasionally, the skin should crackly and puff without burning, and the meat and fat should crisp up. Cook until the centre of the chop reaches 63c. So normally at this point you would just allow the pork chop to rest for 5 minutes, but now is where the magic happens…
Place your pork chop on a tray or chopping board, and pop a disk of the compound butter on top of the chop. Then working quickly pick up a walnut sized ember from the fire using tongs, make sure it is good lumpwood charcoal or hardwood fire ember you are using, please don’t use briquettes. The ember will do it’s magic, will smoke, sizzle and melt the butter. The result is a beautiful bbq pork chop, with crispy crackling, and a wonderful, smoky herby buttery baste… I’m thinking up lots more ways in which this technique can be used, after all there’s nothing quite like the theatre of BBQ….
BBQ PORK LOIN WITH PUMPKIN AND PEAR
I love cooking these pork loins on the BBQ a bit of high direct heat works wonders to crisp up the crackling. You must ensure that there are some other flavours going on underneath the pork, as even with the subtle addition of smoke, it can still be a bit one dimensional. So I love to add onion, garlic,, halved pears, and thick wedges of pumpkin, also a few handfuls of whatever herbs I have to hand to a deep roasting tray.
I added a few sprigs of flat leaf parsley, some marjoram and sage, drizzled over some rapeseed oil, and seasoned generously with sea salt and coarse black pepper. I then placed the pork loin, skin scored with a sharp knife, and rubbed with salt and pepper too, over the top of the veg. Cook on a hot BBQ with a lid at around 200c until the pork loin reaches 65c, you can place skin side down over the direct heat to get the crackling really going..
Once you have perfect crackling, rest the meat for 10 mins. The fat and juices from the pork will have merged with the pumpkin and pear, and you will have some wonderful scrapings to pour over the top of the thick slices of pork belly. Scoop up the pumpkin and pear, and serve with some steamed kale.