Theo Randall’s Pork in Milk with Lemon and Sage
Posted: 18 July '11 by Niall
Theo Randall
I saw Theo Randall making this recipe for Pork in milk with lemon and sage (or Maiale in Latte in Italian) on Market Kitchen a while ago, and I just had to give it a bash.
Apart from having some of my most favourite flavours in lemon and sage, both of which go perfectly with the pork, it also makes use of the cheap and really under-used shoulder of pork. Like all of these less fashionable cuts, the shoulder needs to be slow-cooked but, when it is, the meat becomes incredibly tender and tasty.
Before you dive in, you need to know that the “sauce” looks slightly scary, as the lemon and the heat essentially curdles the milk. If you can get past this, though, you’re in for a treat – those nuggets hold so much flavour, as they’re packed with all of that delicious lemon and sage essence.. they even have a slightly cheesy quality to them.
Theo served his dish with wilted spinach, and I think you’d be hard pressed to find a better accompaniment – just add a good Frascati, and you’ve a perfect meal!
Cooking time: 4 hrs
Serves: 6-8
You can see the photos here:
Ingredients
- 100g unsalted butter
- Small pork shoulder, around 1kg or 1.25kg, boned and skin removed, with around 1cm of fat remaining
- 1.5 litres of full-fat milk
- 1 lemon, juiced and the peeled
- 6 leaves of sage
- 3-4 cloves of garlic
- 1kg spinach leaves
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
Method
- Melt the butter in a large, heavy-based saucepan and seal the pork until all sides have a nice brown crust and some of the fat has melted.
- Take the pork from the pan, discard the cooking fat, and wipe the pan with kitchen towel while leaving the crunchy bits at the bottom.
- Add the lemon zest, juice, sage leaves and garlic, and then pour the milk into the cleaned saucepan and bring it to boil.
- Season the pork shoulder with salt and freshly ground black pepper and put it, shoulder fat side down, into the hot milk.
- Cover the saucepan and cook the pork on the top of the cooker over a low heat for 3 hours.
- Turn the pork over and cook for another hour (or until you can feel that the pork is very tender). Remove the pork and leave to rest.
- The milk should have become a lovely lemony rich sauce with big nuggets of curdled milk.
- Wash the spinach and fry gently in a pan with a little salt until it has wilted, then remove the pan from the heat and drizzle a little olive oil over the spinach leaves.
- Slice the pork into thick, hearty pieces and put a few slices onto a serving plates alongside some the spinach, spooning over a little of the sauce – and make sure you get plenty of those cheesy nuggets on there.
Enjoy!
Our Pork in Milk with Lemon and Sage on wilted spinach
Tags: italian food, pork, recipe, theo randall
Categories: Recipes
This looks delicious!!
I was slightly sceptical when you talked about the “sauce”, but this looks great.
Can’t wait to try it :)
You’re right, Orla – it looks a bit daunting.. but don’t let the appearances scare you off!
A great recipe for some of your less well known produce too ;)