Team 1: Anja van Schalkwyk, Werner Krause
Smoked & Braised Pork Shoulder
Served with carrot and onion confit and white bean puree
½ pork shoulder, deboned, and the skin scored
2 liter brine
50g malden salt
3 sticks of thyme
2 bay leaves
2 liters pork stock
1 packet of oak chips
Place pork shoulder in a bowl, pour brine over and leave overnight in the fridge. Remove pork and smoke with the oak chops until dark pink inside (approx 2 hours). Place pork in oven pan, pour the stock over and add thyme and bay leaves. Braise 2 hours in oven at 100°C.
Cool and slice thinly. Make a confit of onions and carrots and serve the pork slices with the confit and some white bean puree.
Team 2: Angelique Meiring, Kyle Wait
Cherry marinated pork fillet with pomme puree
Served with fresh rocket and beetroot salad and a watercress foam finished sauce Cerise
Marinade:
1 tin black cherries in syrup
10 ml Dijon mustard
20 ml seasoned vinegar
20 ml honey
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2-3 ml ground ginger
5 ml rosemary
3 small spring onions
5 ml lemon juice
¼ stick lemon grass
20 ml olive oil
Combine everything (including cherry syrup) and blend well.
Place 1 - 2 pork fillets in a sealable plastic bag, pour marinade over and seal.
Leave overnight in the fridge.
Drain pork fillet and sear on the outside in a hot seasoned pan. Place in a pre-heated oven (180°C) for approx. 7 minutes, remove and allow the rest 5 minutes.
Carve and spoon sauce over.
Sauce
100 g pitted black cherries, in syrup
10 ml cinnamon
10 ml star anise
Carrots
Onions
Celery
10 ml flour
5 ml tomato paste
Bouquet garni.
Simmer everything 30 minutes and skim regularly.
Add 100ml of cold stock and skim off the impurities. Drain / push through a sieve.
Reduce to a good sauce consistency and flavour with Calvados.
Watercress Foam:
100g watercress
5 g gelatine
75ml cream
Blanche watercress and puree. Boil cream and add to puree. Add sponged gelatine.
Blend until frothy and chill. If available, charge with N2O and squeeze out just before serving.
Team 3: Carel Enslin, Warwick King
Juicy red wine braised pork with cherry foam
Served with smooth pureed sauerkraut, deep fried pomme anna and a pork cep jus
1 boneless pork neck
750 ml red wine
5 g fine ginger
30 ml honey
15 g pimento
2 cloves
Sprigs of rosemary
Seasoning
20 ml mustard
Pork stock
Mix everything except the pork, and braise the pork in this until the pork neck is tender and soft. (Approx 4 hours at a low heat). Slice the pork in neat, think slices and roll in cep mushroom dust. (Dry out cep mushrooms, grind until powdered and roll pork pieces in this just before serving)
Cherry foam:
100ml milk
5 g gelatine
Cherry juice or syrup
Warm the milk and add the gelatine. Stir until dissolved. Add cherry syrup and stir thoroughly. Allow to cool to room temperature and use an electric blender to create the foam. Spoon onto the pieces of pork just before serving.
Team 4: Pascale Hattingh, Antoinette Wandrag & Bernice Crossman
"Charlotte's Web" Braised pork shoulder
1 pork shoulder, deboned
20 g dried apricots
2 cloves garlic
100 ml apricot jam
15 g brown sugar
340 ml apple cider
10 ml ginger
50 ml soy sauce
10 ml whole grain mustard
3 chilies
50 ml lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Simmer all ingredients except the pork shoulder in a saucepan and boil until the jam is melted. Roll the shoulder and tie with string to keep it's shape.
Pour the marinade into a Ziplock bag and place the shoulder in it. Marinate overnight in the fridge.
Place the pork and marinade in a pot, and braise over low heat for 3 hours. If desired, it can be "flash" baked in a hot oven (200°C) for a few minutes or very short period to ensure a crisp outside texture.
Serve on beetroot pomme anna with a mieliepap cake.
Team 5: Lenè Botha, Melissa Posthumus
Pork Loin Noisette, stuffed with peaches
85 - 100 g pork loin noisette per person
Salt, pepper & oil for frying
1 fresh peach per person, caramelized in sugar and butter
100 ml meat stock
Open the pork noisettes out and season
Chop peaches in fine pieces & place inside noisettes. Roll noisettes up and tie with string to stay in shape.
Sear in heated oil in pan. Place in oven roasting pan, pour meat stock around it, and braise until tender and just cooked through.
Serve with braised red cabbage, pomme puree and a brown sauce reduction.
Team 6: Stuart du Preez, Johan Taute
Braised pork neck stuffed with blue cheese and figs
Served on red cabbage and with pomme fondant, baby carrots and fine beans
400 - 450 g boneless pork neck
4 - 6 dried figs, soaked in hanepoot wine until soft
100 - 125 g blue cheese, crumbled
Salt and pepper for seasoning
500 ml pork stock
Fried bacon pieces for garnishing
Slice pork neck in half lengthwise, but not cutting right through, to create a flatter piece. Open the halves, place between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and flatten a bit more with a mallet.
Place soaked figs and blue cheese down the centre.
Roll the pork up and tie up with string. Season with salt and pepper. Place in an oven tray, pour stock over and bake at 180°C until tender. Baste regularly.
Remove pork neck form oven dish, reduce liquid and make a sauce with it.
Serve on red cabbage with the other vegetables and garnish with fried bacon pieces.
Team 7: Silke Viljoen, Franco Marais
Appletizer Braised Pork Belly on sautéed fresh peas
Topped with frozen apple and sage sorbet
Pork and Sage Tortellini
On wilted baby spinach dressed with Parmesan foam, served with apple reduction
Preheat oven to 130°C. Remove skin from pork belly & rub with oil and salt. Place skin in baking tin.
Bake later until skin is crisp. Cut crisp skin into triangles and use as decoration for the finished dish.
Season pork belly, place in oven dish and pour Appletizer over. Cover with foil and braise 6 hours or until very tender.
Press overnight. Slice in pieces and sear in oil in pan until brown and crisp.
Heat braising liquid in saucepan and reduce until syrupy. This is your apple reduction to serve with the pork.
To make the pork and sage tortellini:
1 egg yolk and 50 g bread flour
50 g pork belly off-cuts (cooked), seasoned
6 sage leaves, finely chopped
15 ml pork stock, to moisten the pork off-cuts
Mix egg yolk and flour, and knead until smooth and firm. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, roll out with pasta machine and cut into a circle.
Fill tortellini circle with pork & sage filling. Fold, seal and boil for 2 minutes until just cooked.
For the frozen apple & sage sorbet:
4 Granny smith apples, cored, sliced and frozen for 1 hour
200 g castor sugar, boiled with 400 ml water
25 ml glucose
10 ml lemon juice
10 g chopped fresh sage
Cool the syrup and add the glucose. Using a stick blender, blend the sage with 10 ml sugar syrup and strain. Blend the apples and rest of the sugar syrup. Strain. Add sage liquid to apple syrup with the lemon juice. Churn and freeze.
For the Parmesan Foam:
100ml milk, mixed with 50 g finely grated parmesan cheese
½ egg yolk
Soak milk and parmesan cheese for 20 minutes, heat slightly and season. Pour milk onto egg yolk and blend with a fork. Now using a stick blender, create foam and scoop the foam off the top of the mixture when serving the tortellini. Place foam on top of the tortellini.
Assembly:
Serve a rectangle of pork belly on a spoonful of sautéed, fresh peas. Place a quenelle of the frozen sorbet on top, with a piece of pork crackling on top of the sorbet.
Arrange wilted spinach leaves on place, rest cooked tortellini on it and scoop the parmesan foam onto the tortellini. Spoon the apple reduction sauce around the plate.
Team 8: Esmaralda Leonard, Adelie Ludik
Succulent hoisen marinated pork loin
Served on fresh cabbage salad with tangy apple puree
Per person:
One boneless pork loin chop
60 - 70 ml hoisen sauce
25 ml soy sauce
25 ml vinegar
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Oil for frying
Red wine for sauce
Salt and pepper
Meat stock
Marinate the pork chops 45 - 60 minutes in a mixture of the hoisen sauce, soy sauce, vinegar and garlic. Spoon loin chops and marinade into ovenproof dish. Fry onion in oil and also add to the ovenproof dish.
Braise at 180°C until tender and still slightly pink in the center.
If the pork has any skin on, switch the oven grill on and allow the skin to go crispy.
Make the sauce:
Pour off any oil from the pan juices. Use the onion and left over marinade, add some red wine and meat stock, season and reduce in a saucepan until it is a nice sauce consistency.
Serve with apple and celery puree and thinly sliced red and green cabbage.
Garnish the pork loin chops with an apple crisp, made by drying it out at 100°C in the oven. Serve the loin chops on top of the cabbage salad, add aplle puree and place the apple crisp on top. Drizzle sauce around it.
Team 9: Antoinette Oosthuizen, Hannie Niewoudt
Braised Pork Belly with mustard pommes puree
Served with a cabbage fritter with a chill nectarine sauce
1 piece of pork belly, skin removed and kept separately
1 nectarine, sliced and sprinkled with sugar
1 nectarine, pureed and boiled with honey and balsamic vinegar
Roast the pork belly in the oven at 180°C until tender.
Bake the skin until crisp and chop the crackling into small pieces. Bake the sliced nectarine in the oven and place on a serving plate.
Arranged roasted pork belly on top, and place a quenelle of potato puree on top.
Sprinkle with chopped crackling. Serve with a cabbage fritter.
Team 10: Mariaan Verreynne, Encé Willemse
Miss Piggy's Mezze Platter
Rilettes:
2 pig's cheeks (or belly or shoulder)
25 ml coriander seeds, 15 ml white peppercorns, dried thyme & rosemary, 2 baby leaves, ground together orange zest from 2 oranges
Salt to taste
Remove any fat and skin form the cheeks. Cut fat into cubes and render on stove top. Strain to separate the liquid fat and "kaiings"
Cover the meat with the spices and place in dish. Cover with salt and refrigerate to "cure" for 3 hours.
Rinse the meat thoroughly under running water. Season again with the same spice mix and cover with lard.
Cook on a very slow heat overnight.
Remove meat from fat, pull meat into shreds and season. Add a small amount of fat to bind and spoon into mould. Cover and refrigerate until used.
Jambon persil:
Any meat from the pig's head or any other cut, cooked in reduced pork stock until tender.
60ml chopped parsley
50ml spring onions, chopped
10 ml chives, chopped
Seasoning
Add all the ingredients together, season and place in mould. Cover and refrigerate until used.
Pork lollies:
4 pork ribs, with a small amount of meat on
1 onion, chopped and sautéed in a little olive oil
25ml each Hoisen sauce, Worcestershire sauce, apricot jam and soy sauce
Seasoning
4 strips bacon
Separate the ribs and pull the meat down along the bone to form a ball at the bottom.
Mix sautéed onion and sauce ingredients, boil 2 minutes and puree with a blender.
Baste ribs with sauce and bake 2 hours at 160°C. Wrap bacon around the lolly, baste and bake further until bacon is done.
Bulgur Wheat Pork Pies
Pastry:
80 g bulgur wheat
25 ml cornflour, sifted
25 ml bread flour, sifted
300 ml warm pork stock
Pour stock over bulgur wheat, cover and leave to cool. Separate with a fork and add the flours to form a kneadable dough. Knead until a firm dough and leave to rest.
Rough dough out and cut out circles. Place stuffing in center, fold sides together to form a semi-cirle. Deep fry in oil until golden and crispy.
Stuffing:
15 ml each toasted pine nuts, sultanas and sherry vinegar.
½ onion, 1 garlic clove and 5ml thyme, sautéed in olive oil.
Mix everything together and season.
Crispy Pig's Ears:
Cut ears into thin julienne strips. Season with salt and pepper. Roll in flour, then in beaten egg and then in crumbs. Fry in fat until golden and crispy.
Serve with Piccalilli, ciabatta, mustard sauce and apple compote.
Team 11: Tanya Pöhl, Jana Laubscher
Tender Appletizer braised pork neck
Served with pomme anna, garlic foam and crisp apple slices
Asian infused pork bellyServed on mushy fresh green pea puree and sweet chilli apple sauce
1 deboned pork neck
20ml Dijon mustard
15 ml lemon zest
1 litre Appletizer
Butterfly the neck and flatten out between two sheets of cling film. Spread the mustard & lemon zest on the inside, season with salt and pepper and roll up. Tie with a string.
Place pork neck in an oven dish, pour appletizer over and braise at 100C for 3-4 hours or until soft and tender.
Pork Belly
500g pork belly, skin removed and trimmed
2 Granny Smith apples, (thinly sliced)
1 finger fresh ginger, chopped
2 red chillies, finely chopped
8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
15 ml coriander seeds
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
100 ml honey
100 ml Sweet Indnesian soy sause
2 Apple Ciders
Place the apples, ginger, chillies, coriander seeds, star anise, and cinnamon stick in an oven proof dish with a lid. Place the pork belly on these aromatics. Combine the honey, sweet soy and cider and pour over the belly.
Bake at 100C for 5 hours or until soft and tender. Bake the skin separately to become crisp.
Remove belly from oven, wrap in foil and weigh down overnight. Strain the brasing liquid through a sieve.
Remove the apple and spice mixture and blend down to mush with a hand blender. Now push this through a sieve. Serve with pork belly.
How to make the garlic foam:
100 ml milk
5 cloves of garlic
3 ml gelatine
Infuse the milk with the garlic by warming it. Remove from heat and strain through a sieve. Add the sponged gelatine to the milk and chill slightly.
Froth up the mixture with a hand blender to create foam.