The Blue Pig Company

Due to repeated requests from our customers The Blue Pig Company are now regularly offering gluten free sausages. The response from those who have tried them is very encouraging, as customers with a wheat intolerance can now enjoy the great tasting sausages that everyone  has come to expect from us.

They are hand made like all our sausages using only the meat from our rare breed outdoor pigs. Made to the same recipe as our classic pork sausages, but using a soya based seasoning instead of rusk, they contain 75% pork and 100% great flavour! So if you or someone in your family has a gluten intolerance come and see us at a farmers market and try our gluten free sausages.

For those of you who have searched far and wide for good tasting gluten free sausages and would like to eat them regularly, we can now send a box for you to freeze by overnight courier.

GLUTEN FREE BOX

20 trays thick link gluten free sausages

6 Thick sausages/tray  approx 450g

£75 inc p&p

Overnight delivery in insulated boxes to your door

 Cick on contact us to request a delivery

This is a receipe we found in a book called The Taste of China by Ken Hom that you do not see very often. However it is a dish we have cooked often and is like chinese comfort food. As europeans we expect to crisp up skin and fat from pork but this version braises the meat to the point where it can be “cut” with chop sticks. Its tender, succulent and as Ken calls it”…a gastronomic experience…” It uses belly pork which the chinese call ” five-flowered” pork so that tells us something and is named after a famous poet, statesman and gourmet from the Song dynasty called Su Dongpo.

You will need:

approximately 1kg of Blue Pig belly pork in one piece

3 tablespoons oil

6 spring onions

6 slices fresh ginger

4 tablespoons sugar

4 fl oz dark soy sauce

4 fl oz rice wine ( use dry sherry if you cant get rice wine)

4 fl oz water

First blanch the pork in a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain and pat dry with kitchen paper. Heat a wok or large frying pan, add the oil and then brown the pork skin side down until crispy.

             Cut the spring onions into 2 inch lengths and then chuck them into a large casserole with the rest of the ingredients and put the meat in and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer for at least 3 hours adding more water if it starts to dry out and turning the meat every so often. Dont be too fussy its a fairly relaxed sort of thing but the longer it gets the better. Once done remove meat from pot, slice and put braising liquid into a gravy boat or simaliar to serve with plain rice and a stir fried vegetable, preferably something green.

               You can if you wish skim some of the fat off ( very easy if you let it go cold first and reheat) but the fat is part of the  point of the dish and its good for you! ( See post about pork fat and your heart - and other things!) It is, as a sunday paper food writer might call it, deeply savoury.

This receipe comes from Susan Brookes who used to appear on the Richard and Judy show many moons go. Susan went to school with our mother and grew up within spitting distance of where we come from.  Susan has written many cook books largely based on food from Yorkshire and now lives in regal retirement not far from where she started life and nearer then ever to us. Its a bit like Roysten Vasey up here!         

You will need:

4 Blue Pig chops

340 g  celeriac peeled and  cut into chunks

16 pitted prunes

150 ml  apple juice

salt and pepper to taste

2 teaspoons cornflour

              The prunes will need soaking over night unless they are the ready to eat variaty.

     Then take a large casserole that is large enough to take the chops in a single layer sat on top of the celeriac. The prunes can be arranged in and around the chops, then season and pour over the apple juice. Cover and bake in an oven set to 180 C or gas 4 for about an hour or until the meat is tender. Check as you go to make sure it has not dried out and add water as necessary. When cooked remove the meat, celeriac and prunes to a serving plate and boil the gravy. Add a little slaked cornflour to thicken as required and pour over the meat.

                   This would be good served with mash or baked potatoes and a green vegetable. We are sure that Susan would not mind us suggesting that you could ring the changes and putting in dried apricots instead of the prunes. You could also substitute the celeriac for what ever is more seasonal and/or available. We could also imaagine a little thyme in there too.

For all you fans of Blue Pig pork who know that rare breed pork tastes good and  know that the suculence and sensual mouth feel comes with a bit of fat, will be really pleased by some information we have come across from Nina Planck in the Free Range magazine. Nina started the first farmers market in London and has written several books about traditional food.Nina has this to say:

          “…….pork is not junk food. Nor is it bad for your heart. Here,s what they don,t tell you about pork. The fat in pork (and lard and bacon) is mostly unsaturated. Thats right; with some variation from the diet of the pig, most of the fat in pork is the unsaturated kind - the one all the experts agree is healthy. Most of the unsaturated fat in pork is monounsaturated oleic acid, the same fat in olive oil. Yes the one thats good for your heart.

                About half the fat in pork is saturated, but saturated fat is not the villain they say it is. The main effect of natural saturated fats is to raise the HDL (high-density lipoprotein)  the so-called “good cholesterol”. In places like Borneo, they eat a traditional diet rich in pork with no ill effects. The fat of of wild boar ( not the lean meat) is prized for physical, sexual, and spiritual health.”

          So there you have it:  sausages, bacon, roast pork with crackling need no longer be a guilty pleasure. You can enjoy pork ( especially from the Blue Pig) knowing that your delicious eating experience is good for your heart - as well as who knows what else!

Enjoy!

 Are you planning an event, having a party and do not want the hassle? Then let The Blue Pig Company take care of things for you.  This year we have catered for things as diverse as surprise birthday parties and school centenary celebrations. College open days to music festivals, food festivals and weddings.

                 We like to think a BBQ is more than just a sausage and burger with variety provided by a choice of red or brown sauce! If you look on our product page you will see all the flavours of sausage we do which can all be served as burgers. A Blue Pig Pork and  Country Herb burger with a little parmesan and a slice of beefsteak tomato is a sublime eating experience. We have wowed clients with pork steaks marinated in fresh herbs, lemons and olive oil. We even had a butchers lad impressed with chinese style spare ribs drizzled with honey!

    And we are not just pork we are beef and lamb farmers too so the choice is yours.

              Have somthing hot from the BBQ and then have a little salad on the side. Do you fancy a proper potato salad with waxy spuds, mayonnaise and snipped chives? How about tomatoes layered up with thinly sliced red onions, extra virgin olive oil and fresh basil? Or maybe  home made coleslaw rocks your boat? You tell us what you want and we will do our best to make your event special.

              Get in touch and we will be happy to discuss your requirements. Remember we will work to your specification, budget and size of event.

With some trepidation the Blue Pig Company arrived at the Confederation of Yorkshire Butchers Great Yorkshire Sausage Competition on Sunday 4th Novenber. This was the first time we had entered a competition so we did not know quite what to expect!

            So we are very pleased to say that we were finalists in the Thick Pork Sausage, with our Classic Pork sausage, and the Speciality Sausage with our newly improved Toulouse Sausage.

          The sausages receive marks out of 60 and are judged in both their uncooked and cooked state. Our Toulouse suasage got 51 out of 60 with the judges commenting that with  ” a good taste” they ” would reccomend” this sausage.

            These sausages are great as they are either fried, grilled or BBQed. However at this time of year try a Cassulet or Sausage and Bean Casserole. Check out our receipe pages for more details.

THE BLUE PIG COMPANY

CASSOULET (or Sausage and Bean Casserole)

You will need:

450g Blue Pig Toulouse Sausage

100g Blue Pig Pancetta

Tin of Tomatoes

Tin of Canellini or simaliar drained

An onion

A couple of carrots

Ditto celery

Herbs of your choice

Heat a casserole and add some olive oil. Chop your onions, carrots and celery and chuck in the pot. Roughly chop the pancetta and add to pan. Fry gently till the vegetables are soft. Add the sausages, tomatoes and beans plus some stock or water to cover and season. Put the lid on and simmer gently for a couple of hours. Serve with crusty bread. This is even better if you leave it over night and reheat the next day.

This type of stew is really relaxed as you can ring the changes depending what is in season or to your taste. So you can alter the beans or the vegetables. Put in what ever herbs you like or even some basil pesto. But always make sure you do not make it too low fat as the fatty pancetta, the suasages and the beans work together. You can even put more stock in and then add pasta which will thicken it up if left a while.

And its always a hit with kids – even fussy teenagers!

CLASSIC ROAST PORK

You will need:

1.6kg Loin of Blue Pig Pork

40g of butter or olive oil for brushing

Salt

Preheat the oven to 180C or Gas Mark 4

Make sure the pork skin is scored all over – its hard to over do it

Rub the skin with the butter or brush with olive oil

Sprinkle with salt to taste ( you can be quite generous )

Roast for 2 hours

After the cooking time transfer the meat to plate or board and let it rest while you make your gravy. Pour off the fat from the roasting tin. Make sure you save it for roasting potatoes another time. Then make your gravy by adding a liquid of your choice to the tin. Good choices are stock, wine or mothers favourite - water from cooking vegetables. Stir to catch all the sticky bits and boil. Some chefs would tell you to strain it at this point but the sticky bits are good! You can thicken it with a little slaked cornflour if you wish.

Good additions:

Herbs in with the roast, especially Rosemary

Apple sauce

Sage and onion stuffing

THE BLUE PIG COMPANY

CLASSIC BAKED HAM

You will need:

1.8kg Blue Pig Gammon joint

Large pan

Cloves

Demerara Sugar

Put the gammon in the pan and cover with water. Leave to soak over night then discard the water. Add fresh water and bring to the boil and allow to simmer gently for 40 minutes. Remove and wrap in foil and put in the oven for another 40 minutes at 180C Gas Mark 4.

With 30 minutes to go remove the foil and the rind and score the fat in diamond shapes. Stud with cloves and sprinkle with the sugar and pat it into the fat. Put back in the oven till golden and crispy. Can be served hot or cold.

Good additions:

Add aromatics to the water when simmering. Things like carrots, onions, celery, bay leaves, peppercorns, sweet spices in fact almost anything you have to hand.

Add mustard to the sugar for the glaze to give a sweet sour effect.

Omit the baking section and simmer for another 40 minutes and its boiled ham. Fantastic for sandwiches with chutneys or salad or even some left over apple sauce form a roast.

Bread sauce

Sage and onion stuffing

Just another lazy day by the pool!