How to cook sustainable pork

Cheap cuts of pork should not be discarded, as they form some of the tastiest parts. Here are recipes using high quality and sustainable pork, using cuts from offal to pork belly and liver

(Abel & Cole)

Sweet-chilli pork meatballs with Asian salad by Abel & Cole

This gorgeous salad serves 2 as a main or 4 as a starter. To make it more substantial, cook up a batch of Thai rice noodles, double the dressing and add into the mix.

Time: 35 mins
2-4 people

500g pork mince1 red chilli, finely chopped (more or less, to taste)*
3 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 onion, grated or 6 spring onions, finely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
4 tbsp agave or honey
1 tbsp soy sauce
3 limes
2 tbsb olive or sesame oil, plus a drop extra
2 tsp freshly grated ginger 2 large handfuls watercress
½ fennel bulb
A handful alfalfa sprouts
A handful fresh mint

Heat your oven to 200C/Gas 6. Tumble your mince into a large bowl. Fold in the chilli, garlic, onion, a good pinch of salt and pepper, 1 tbsp agave/honey, soy sauce and the zest of juice of 1 lime. Mix everything well.

Get a little frying pan hot. Add a drop of oil. Take a little pinch from the meatball mix – this is your test meatball to see if you’ve got the right balance of chilli/honey/soy sauce/salt etc. Fry the mini meatball in the pan till golden all over. Taste. Adjust seasoning in your meatball mix to suit your taste.

Pinch golf ball-sized nuggets of the meat mix out and roll into shape. Arrange on a baking tray. Roast for 10-15 mins, or till golden all over. Remove from the oven and gloss with 1 tbsp agave/honey. Place the remaining 2 tbsp honey in a dish. Add a grating of lime zest, 2 tbsp lime juice, 2 tbsp olive or sesame oil and the grated ginger.

Arrange your leaves on your plates or a large platter. Use a veg peeler to carve wispy ribbons from your fennel. Scatter them over the watercress. Add your sprouts and most of the mint. Gloss with half the dressing. Gently mix everything together. Dot your meatballs over the top. Drizzle the remaining dressing over. Finish with a few more mint leaves.

(Abel & Cole)

Pork belly with shallots and green sauce by Abel & Cole

Pork belly is the ultimate comfort food. Meltingly soft in the middle with crunchy crackling on top.

4-6

1.2kg pork belly
4 shallots, thinly sliced
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 bunch of parsley, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
A glug of olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat your oven to 140°C/Fan 120°C/Gas 1. Unwrap your pork and pat it dry with kitchen paper. Carefully score the skin on top of the pork with sharp knife, cutting about ½cm deep. Generously sprinkle on sea salt and pepper and rub into all of the grooves.

Pop the joint onto a roasting tray and slide into the oven. Roast for about 1 hr 45 mins, or till the meat is soft and tender. While the belly is cooking slowly, pickle the shallots. Scatter the slices into a bowl and season with a little salt and pepper. Squeeze over half of the lemon juice and toss everything together. Cover and set aside.

Turn the oven up to 220°C/Fan 200°C/Gas 7. Roast the pork for 15 mins, or till the crackling starts to bubble and crisp up. Remove from the oven and leave somewhere warm to rest for about 20 mins. Mix the parsley, garlic, lemon zest and the remaining half of juice in a bowl. Season to taste and bring together into a sauce with a glug of olive oil. Slice the meat, scatter over the tangy shallots and spoon on dollops of the green sauce to serve.

Lunch on a stick: Pig's offal skewers (Jason Lowe)

Pig's offal skewers by Mark Hix

Serves 4 as a starter, or more as a party snack

Pig's offal is as cheap as you like and hardly gets used, which is a shame. Most butchers would be glad to part with pig's offal these days, I'm sure. You can use a mixture of offal on these little skewers or just one type.

1 pig's kidneys 
1 pig's heart 
​150-200g pig's liver, skinned 
​3tbsp Dijon mustard 
​60-70g lard or the pork fat from the cheeks, melted 

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

First trim your offal: split the kidneys in half lengthways, remove the sinew and surrounding membrane then chop into rough 1cm cubes. Cut the liver also into rough 1cm cubes.

Cut the heart in half, then with the point of a knife, cut away the gathering of tubes and fat from inside the hearts and any exterior fat.

Cut the heart into the same sized pieces as the kidneys and liver, removing any tubes and fat as you go, then rinse in cold water to remove any blood and dry on some kitchen paper.

Place all of the offal into a bowl, whisk together the Dijon mustard and half the lard, then mix everything together until well coated. Skewer up the offal (wooden kebab skewers are good but metals ones will do, or cocktail sticks if you are making snack-sized ones).

Heat the skewered lard in a heavy frying pan or ribbed griddle and cook for a minute or so on each side until well coloured on the outside yet still pink on the inside. Serve with more mustard – or whatever takes your fancy... Lunch on a stick!

Grilled pig’s liver with mustard and crab apple sauce by Mark Hix

Serves 4

Pig’s liver is a really under-used offal – treat it just like calf’s liver; it’s a fraction of the price and most butchers will be glad to get shot of it. Buy a whole one and use the rest in a salad or mince it up and make good old-fashioned faggots which are cheap and delicious. There are various varieties of crab f apples and many of the streets in London were planted with crab apple trees which rarely get harvested; have a look – there might well be a tree near you.

4 slices of pig’s liver cut to about 1cm thick
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A little vegetable or corn oil for frying
60g butter
​250-300g crab apples, washed and  stems removed
​1-2tbsp caster sugar
​2tbsp grain mustard
​30-40g fresh white breadcrumbs,  lightly toasted
​2 tbsp chopped parsley

First, make the crab apple purée: put the crab apples in a saucepan with half of the sugar and a tablespoon of water, cover with a lid and cook on a low heat for 8-10 minutes or until they are soft. A mouli legume is the best way to purée these as it catches the tiny pips in the mesh, or you can just blend the fruit in a liquidiser until smooth. Taste the purée and add more sugar if necessary.

Melt half of the butter in a pan then mix with the breadcrumbs and parsley, and season. Heat the vegetable oil in a heavy or non-stick frying pan, season the liver on both sides and cook for about a minute and a half on each side on a high heat – adding a knob of butter while it’s cooking. Keep warm. To serve, spread each slice of liver with mustard and spoon on the breadcrumb mixture. Spoon the crab apple purée on to warmed serving plates and spread it with the back of a spoon and place the liver on top.

(James Golding)

Smoked belly bacon and pickled cockles with garden shoots and puy lentils by James Golding, chef director of The Pig Hotels

1x piece pork belly
5x picked cockles
50g x cooked puy lentils
1x bunch kale shoots
2x tbsp wild harvest via her
4x tbsp rapeseed oil
Salt and pepper

Slowly braise the bacon in chicken stock for 1 ½ hours at 160c covered in the oven. Blanch the shoots in boiling water & re-fresh in cold water before buttering & seasoning. Mix vinegar & rapeseed oil in a bowl and season. Season the puy lentils after cooking with a little oil, Salt & pepper before plating.