France - Pork Rillette

A rillette is a type of coarse meat spread similar to pâté. Often made with pork but can be other meats or fish too. Usually served on toasted bread or crackers. Sounds delicious to me.

Ingredients:

500g pork shoulder

300g belly pork

1/2 cup water

4-5 bay leaves

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 lemon

Salt and pepper

Cut up the meat into 1 inch pieces and place in an ovenproof dish. Add the bay leaves and half a cup of water.

Cover with foil and braise in the oven for about 3 hours at 150C.

Remove from the oven and pour out any liquid into a measuring jug. There should be about a cup of fat/water.

 

Using a potato masher break up all the meat. It should be really soft and break apart easily. Add 3/4 of the liquid back to the dish and mash up more. Season with salt and pepper. Add the nutmeg and the juice of the lemon.

Put the mashed meat in pint sized kilner jars and then put in the fridge so the fat can set. Leave them there for about 2 hours (longer if possible).

Serve with toasted bread.

I loved this! I wish I'd made it a bit saltier as it mellows out in the fridge some. It was great on toasted crusty rolls. Really meaty and satisfying to eat. I was in such a hurry to taste it that I only took this terribly blurry picture of it on a roll. Sorry about that. That just adds to the sincerity of my enjoying it so much, right?